Sparks
by Roxie Seine
Summary: This popped into my head while watching Defection. Bo isn't the only little girl with incredible powers. Current episode: Second Chances. THIS STORY IS COMPLETE. But, there's a cliff-hanger, actually there are a few. Story continues in "Bo and Alice" now.
1. Chapter 1

I'm SO glad that FFN has a tv category for Believe. The last episode I had this idea pop into my head and it hasn't left me alone. I thought, I really wish I could write this someone where people could see it- then maybe it'll leave me alone. So YAY! FFN!

I really love the show, and I wish more people did. It may have some problems, but this is the first show in a long long time that's even remotely okay for kids to watch. And a strong girl character who's more interested in thinking and helping people than social standing and clothes? Amen for that. I was thinking since there's so few of us in the Believe community for the time being we should probably read and review everyone's work, since it doesn't seem like anyone else but us will even know we're here. :( I hope that gets better in time.

This is what popped into my head. Was going to add in details, but saw how long it'd gotten. For now, if you saw the episode "Defection" where with the cops/FBI, you're good to go.

"I'm not going to tell you again! Get on the ground! Now!"

"Bo!"

Everyone's heads turned at the unexpected voice.

Suddenly, a girl about Bo's height was running towards them. Blond curls flying out behind her like a flag, her shoes crunched in the snow, then fell hard on the pavement as she began to cut across the officers.

"Minor on scene!"

"Hold your fire!"

Unfortunately that didn't seem to translate to "put your guns down".

But the strange girl hardly seemed aware of them as she made a bee line towards Bo. Halfway there, she abruptly stopped, putting her in direct line with Ferrell. She turned then and looked at the three menacing individuals in front of her.

"Hey!" She put both hands up, fingers outspread in a stop signal. "Woah! Wow, okay yeah right cops are friendly." She glanced at the two men with guns.

"What're you gonna do, shoot me?"

Tate looked at her. If nothing else this kid was buying them time. If it weren't for the head of tight ringlets, she looked an awful lot like Magic girl.

"Little girl," Agent Ferrell spoke smoothly, "go home. You're in the middle of a national security situation, and we don't want you to get hurt."

"Soooo, you're pointing a gun at me?"

Tate glanced over at Bo, figuring that somehow her telekenetic barometer might be working on something. She wasn't looking at him though, only staring at the girl, and she was grinning wide.

"You ran right into the middle of a take down, kid!" One of the men yelled.

THe girl ignored him, swiftly skirting out of the reach of the female officer who grabbed at her, and instead moved quickly to Tate. It seemed to be a defensive manuver.

"That man is dangerous," Farrell called out. "Get away from him. We don't want you to get hurt."

She looked at Tate then, not at all bothered. Then realizing her back was to the officers, she quickly glanced behind her, then put one hand out behind her, palm facing backward, fingers outstretched, as if telling them to stop.

Bo's slight sqeal made Tate look at her, then his eyes were back on the new kid.

To get a better look at him, the girl stepped backwards, but before she did that, he noticed she moved her hand backward first, then took a step. Then moved her hand backward again then took another step back.

Tate could hear as well as feel, Bo jumping up and down in giddy excitement.

"Oh crap," he realized, "there's another one."

While he was hoping he didn't have to babysit her too, she spoke again.

"He's not dangerous at all," she answered the woman. She stared at him hard for a moment, then turned her eyes to Bo's. She stared at her. Then, as if in pain, put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes.

"Stop it," she muttered, shaking her head, eyes still closed. "I can hear you just fine."

After a moment, Bo said "Sorry," shrugging apologetically.

Then the girl opened her eyes. "I didn't need the extra info anyways. I know more than you do."

She turned back to the officers then, but looked at the woman.

"You know who this man is. He's no threat. He isn't even kidnapping that girl. They're not strangers," she said all of this as if they were idiots who should know better.

"Leave him alone. You know you have no reason to be after him, or this little girl. He's not dangerous. There's plenty of people that are," she raised her voice. "Why don't you do something useful like shoot some rapists or something?"

A sharp laugh escaped Tate's lips before he realized it.

She pushed her hand backward again, then ran towards Bo, embracing her in a hug.

"Hey Bo!"

Bo laughed. "Hey, Allison!"

The girl giggled.

"Pretty fun, huh?"

"How'd you know I was here?"

The girl, Allison apparently, shrugged. "I just knew."

Bo nodded sagely.

"Hey, aren't you cold?" She asked her.

"No," Allison shook her head. "I'm never cold."

Tate looked at her. All she was wearing against the biting cold was a pair of sneakers, jeans and t-shirt and a light jean jacket. No gloves, or hat.

"Little girl, step away!"

Allison sighed in deep annoyance and fatigue, feeling the men's guns on her back- even though they weren't specifically pointed at her, it was bad enough.

This time when she turned back to face the cops, she took a step forward. Reflexively, both Bo and Tate took a step back.

Tate realized why. THe kid was furious. He could actually feel her anger, it almost seemed to radiate out of her, like heat. But it wasn't directed at him, he was grateful for that.

"You're interfering with a police and FBI matter! Step aside!"

Tate felt rather than saw something push foward out of the new kid, right at the officers. When he saw them all take a few steps backward at once, he knew he wasn't imagining things.

"You're scaring her!" Allison yelled this at them, as if it were supposed to chastize them.

"Stop it! Leave her _alone_!" It was a scream.

The word alone came out something like Bo's "unhappy and alone!"

Only if you were really watching could you see the girl's curls sticking out from her body. just slightly levitated off her back and shoulders.

He felt it then and realized what the girl was doing with her hands. He could feel something like a dull electrical current, but judging from the observation that the girl wouldn't let her own body come into contact with her hands at that moment, he had a feeling she was generating something much stronger than a small charge.

_Definitely another one._ Watching Allison he suddenly thought of Storm from the X-Men cartoons. He laughed to himself at the thought. THat's what they're like, the X-Men. Just think of it like that, then it'll be normal. Just a bunch of mutants.

"Hey,"

Allison's voice was a snarl. "That's not nice."

Shit! He froze, realizing she'd heard his thoughts.

"That's not nice either."

"Hey look kid, mind your own business," he muttered the words lest the cops pick up on that too.

Allison let out a breath and looked back at Bo.

"You wanna do your thing?"

Bo simply raised her eyebrows.

"You can do it!" SHe encouraged her. "It'll be funny," she smiled. "I wanna see."

Bo closed her eyes and concentrated. No one noticed anything for a moment, until the taxi began to levitate off the ground.

_Holy shit._

Tate instinctively reached out to Bo, in a move meant to somehow protect her.

Then the car launched through the air, but he and Bo were running before it ever reached the ground. Tate heard the Allison's laughter, and imagined she was probably pointing and laughing at the cops- that made him feel better, but he certainly wasn't going to look back to see.

the need to get away, and get to Winter surpassed all else. Only the most immediate things came to mind when they reconnected.

First outraged at being judged on lateness, and second,

"She threw a car!"


	2. Chapter 2

If you want to keep Believe on the air, you need to tell NBC. Go to Facebook/ NBC

Tell them NOT TO CANCEL Believe! Now, on with the story:

Tate sat on the low stool in the lower deck of the tiny ship, feeling the waves rock him slightly. He had his chiseled hands clasped together, elbows on bent knees as he thought about the events of that day.

It's a nightmare, he thought. Running for my life every damn day, several times a day? Christ, prison was better than this. At least I knew it had an end.

Then he sat in silence. He was as jailed here as he was anywhere else and he knew it.

Winter was all the while working on some plan or another. He had a tablet that he'd randomly jot on. What he worked on, Tate supposed, when his attention wasn't fully on Bo Adams herself. They were like magnets. Bo always ran to him, and when Bo was around Winter seemed to see no one else. THis kid was clearly the light in this man's life.

He gave a gruff, annoyed sigh as that thought made him think again of Nina. So, he decided to change the subject.

"She failed to mention there's another one of her."

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Tate?" Winter asked.

Tate nodded his head in the direction of Bo's sleeping form before them, and was careful to keep his voice low as he answered,"There's another girl like her. Saw her today. Right before the kid threw the car."

"Explain," Winter's voice was husky and low in the dark night.

"She came outta nowhere. Ran up to Bo, talked to her and that cop chick, or FBI whatever she is""

She works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Milton confirmed.

"And to me, she talked about stuff like she knew things."

"Never saw anything like that in my life. Till her," he added.

"Are you talking about Allison?"

Bo's voice, with it's usual sweet innocent tone, rose from the coverings on a make shift bed. In the lower deck of the small ship, this room would serve as sleeping quarters for them all. Bo sat up then, eyes bright and eager, as if ready to share about a beloved friend.

Milton Winter smiled warmly at her

."And that's not all," Tate's voice continued, with conviction. "She has this weird power."

Tate wrinkled up his brow trying to think of it without confusing his brain, and think of a way to explain it to Winter.

"I couldn't tell what she was doing at first. But she can push people. She pushed me backward, and Bo, without touching either of us."

"Only a couple of steps," Bo corrected him, frowning, lest her insult her new friend.

"Then she did something, I don't know what, but you could feel energy coming out of her, heat, and something that felt like static. I think she made some sort of-"

"She was protecting us," Bo explained. "The first time she was keeping them away from us, then it was to keep us inside, inside the bubble she made."

"Bubble?" Milton's dark eyes looked questioningly at Tate.

He shrugged. "Some sort of invisible forcefield, like Star Wars or somethin'."

"I don't think the police knew it was there," Bo spoke up again. "They were too far away."

"But they'd know about it if they got too close." Tate had no doubt about that. "Even the kid wouldn't let her body come into contact with whatever it was she was making."

"Sounds interesting," It was clear that Milton Winter was giving this news serious thought.

Tate then asked a question of Bo that he'd wanted to ask since before the car incident.

"Hey, how'd you know that kid anyway?"

Bo gave him a slightly blank stare. "I didn't,"

"Did she know you?"

"I don't think so."

Tate threw up his hands. "Then how did she know you? She called you by name, which might be cuz you're Little Miss Amber Alert, but then you called her by name. SHe never introduced herself. How'd you know her?"

Bo's eyebrows went up and so did her shoulders. "I don't know," she replied with her usual glaring honesty. "I just knew her. Once I saw her, it was like I knew her forever."

"But you'd never seen that kid before? Maybe at that place they kept you at?"

Winter interuppted before she could answer. "What did this little girl look like?"

"Like Bo," he nodded to her. "But a little taller, skinnier"

"ANd she has curly hair," Bo said it eviously and had a dreamy look on her face. "I wish I could have touched her hair, played with it. I've never seen anyone with hair like that.""So she didn't look totally like me," Bo corrected Tate. glanced at Winter and frowned.

"She didn't have our little friend's manner, her innocence that's for sure."

"She's jaded?" Bo used the word Tate mentioned earlier hoping it would be right.

Tate shrugged. "Something like that. Her eyes were darker, you could see she'd been through stuff. She's a lot more closed off than kids her age should be."

"How old did you say she was?"

"I didn't. But she looked Bo's age, maybe a little older? Or maybe she just seemed older."Adding to his list of observations about the girl Tate continued on. "She can read minds."

Milton looked at Bo this time for confirmation.

She nodded readily.

"She hurt her." Tate had a slight smirk as he said this.

"What?"

"I didn't mean to!" Bo cried. She sighed and her shoulders dropped down. "I was just thinking things at her, before I was really sure what she was-""

a mutant, Tate remembered and chuckled.

"I was trying to think to her that we were in danger, and she should go away. But she said I was telling her too much. She said she knew that. She said she came because she felt that I was in trouble."

Tate looked at Bo like she was nuts. "That kid never said any of that!"

"Yes," Bo's eyes widened and she looked at Tate as if daring him to challenge her. "She did! She said it with her mind."

"And you heard her?"

Bo nodded."She showed me really quick that she'd come because she'd been feeling my fear and that I wasn't safe. She came to protect me."

"That's why it was so strong," Tate muttered the words thinking aloud.

"Mr. Tate?"

"When they seemed to be threatening Bo, or at least when this kid thought they were, she got a lot stronger. It was the need to protect Bo that made her powers stronger."

"She didn't want me to get hurt," Bo explained.

"Sounds like a very interesting little girl,"Winter glanced at Bo and Tate's hands flew up.

"No! No. No way. Don't even think about it, Winter. I'm not babysitting another one. One is bad enough."

Bo grinned at him, showing all her teeth. Then she laughed, giddy.

Milton Winter held up both hands in supplication. "I never said anything of the sort. This isn't a child from the program."

"Looks like there might be special little kids all over the place, huh?" Tate grinned at his little joke. "DOes it drive you nuts that they're not in your program?"

*************Okay, how come no one's reading Chapter 2? Cuz no one's reviewed it.*********


	3. Chapter 3

Bo couldn't sleep. She stared in the mirror, staring at her reflection, yet not staring at her reflection. For a moment she didn't feel real, as if she weren't in her body, or perhaps was in a dream. She blinked hard and shook her head trying to get her dark eyes to focus. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't her own eyes looking back at her.

She screamed and stepped backward until she bumped into the wall behind her. Blond chunks of hair fell in front of her face and obscured her vision slightly, but not enough to keep her from seeing what she saw in the mirror.

"Shhh!" The command seemed to boom through the air. Then, a giddy squeal echoed across the tiled walls of the bathroom, matching her own from a day ago.

"I wasn't sure this would work," she confessed.

Bo stared, mouth agape at the reflection in the mirror. "Allison?"

The other girl flashed a bright smile.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm not here," she answered, "at least, not where you are."

Bo looked at Allison. Her rumpled and frizzed curls told her that Allison had either recently awoke, or simply hadn't slept.

"I've been trying to find you. THen when I did, I wanted to see if I could do more. So, I waited, and I listened."

"You spied on me!" Bo cried out.

"Don't be such a baby," Allison chided. "I needed to figure out when you were in front of a mirror or a tv. But I figured a mirror would be better."

"You spied on me in the bathroom?" Bo let her disgust show.

The look Allison gave her mirrored her own-literally. "Don't be disgusting," she rolled her eyes.

Allison was saying, "I waited until you were playing with your hair" WHen the door was slammed open.

"Bo!"

A look of horror crossed Bo's face and her eye brows shot up as she jumped sideways away from the door.

"Tate!" She screeched. "Knock!"

She gave him the same look she just given Allison.

Tate's groggy eyes widened in anger.

"You screamed!"

"A half hour ago," she chided.

"Don't be smart with me kid."

Then Bo remembered and pointed to the mirror. Nothing but her own reflection, and now Tate's was there.

"I," she faltered, "I just thought I saw someone in the mirror."

Tate snorted a laugh and looked down at Bo as if she'd lost her tiny mind.

"Of course you saw someone in the mirror. That's why it's called a mirror- so you can see yourself."

"Don't make fun of me," she pouted, glaring at him.

"Although, he ran his hand through Bo's matted, tangled mass of hair, "seeing this, I can understand why you screamed."

He walked away laughing as if he'd just told the best joke in the world.

Bo glared at his departing form, indignant.

"Knock!" She yelled after him, not about to let him get the last word in.

"Stop screaming at your own reflection!" He called back from further away in the apartment.

Bo let out a huffing growl of anger, then not able to think of anything to say back, slammed the door to the bathroom.

Bo gave a silent nod of pride and her self-satisfied smile was reflected back at her in the mirror. THen she remembered she was still in the bathroom, when she'd intended to go back to bed. She reminded herself that this was just one more reason to be angry with Tate. This could somehow be blamed on him, afterall.

"Allison?" She whispered this time, staring deep into the mirror. Bo waited for a while, but when nothing and no one looked back at her but Bo Adams' reflection, Bo shut the bathroom light off, opened the door, and went back to bed.

Okay, review. It makes me feel like I suck when no one reviews. EIther that or no one's read the chapter. I mean, if you read you should review. I personally haven't even had the time to read other stories like I thought I would, but once I do, I shall review. Cuz it's just rude not to. So, lemme know what you think of this little turn in the story.


	4. Chapter 4

She put down her sword

No, she wouldn't do that, it wouldn't make sense. Eraser to paper made quick work of erasing the half written phrase.

She put her sword back in its sheath, then picking up her skirt she stepped carefully over the river of blood that was pouring down the hillside towards her.

Allison looked at her work and smiled. It was a pretty good start, so far.

She glanced up from her paper to be sure that the other kids were either still working, or too busy not working to notice her. Then, she wrote on.

Waiting for the rest of the class to finish their work was always boring. It was almost as bad as waiting for them to pay attention or worse, actually care about their education, or lack thereof. So, to pass the considerable time between when they finished reading and writing answers, Allison worked on her stories. She wasn't stupid though- she wrote them in code and backwards, and just to be on the safe side, in French. In fact knowing how most of her classmates hardly knew proper English she could and often did write her stories just in French, without any extra work. Even her teachers didn't know French. She knew, because she always checked.

Every time she had a new teacher, which was often, she'd swear a lot in French, out loud. If the teacher didn't seem aghast, or wanted to know what she said, and commented (after Allison had provided a clear lie such as, "Oh, I just said, I love school) on how well she spoke, or how she wished she'd learned French Allison knew it was safe to say and write pretty much whatever she wanted in French without ever having to worry about discovery.

"Freak."

The word was whispered softly and with calculation so that Allison and anyone near to her would hear clearly, but Mrs. Berenstein would not.

And, she didn't.

Out of the corner of her eye Allison saw long straight brown hair pass her, and knew immediately who it was, even though all the girls at school had some variation of straight hair, long, short, and usually either black or brown, which made her own mass of corkscrew blond curls, and her stick out all the more.

Allison simply glared at the desktop for a moment, then made her face and all her body passive. Look like you don't care, she reminded herself. Look like you don't hear her.

Allison sighed. She was so, so tired of reminding herself of this dozen, no hundreds of times a day. Carefully she folded up her "story paper" and hid it in her folder.

There was a short scream. Allison started in her seat from the unexpected noise, and looked backward, as did the rest of the class. She looked in time to see the name-caller, Sarah Mueller, stumble to the floor.

Allison choked down laughter, or tried to, then found she was actually choking so that she had to cough repeatedly.

"Allison Cramer!" Sarah's indignant,obnoxious voice singled her out for blame.

"Mrs. Berenstein, Allison tripped me!" She cried out.

The teacher looked calmly at Sarah. "Sarah," her voice showed just slight exasperation, "Allison is sitting in her seat doing her school work. You are all the way at the end of the aisle. Please tell me in which universe she would be able to cause you to fall from half way across the room."

Allison was pleased by this unusual show of common sense by a teacher, but had the sense herself not to let her happiness show on her face. Any emotion was cause for attack in this school.

"Well, she did!" Sarah insisted. "She's always doing stuff like that!"

_Maybe if you weren't such a brat people would leave you alone._

Allison's jaw dropped as she heard Mrs. Berenstein's voice again. But the woman hadn't spoken.

Quickly, she looked back down at her desk before anyone saw. She bit her lower lip to keep from laughing aloud, but couldn't help the joy from showing in her eyes. Inwardly she laughed. She's okay, she realized. I'm definitely going to like her.

And she hadn't done anything to Sarah at all, but she had been considering it. In fact, before hearing Mrs. Berenstein's secret thoughts about Sarah, she'd been considering making her trip just as Sarah made an attempt to walk back to her seat again, having finished arguing with the teacher. But, with Mrs. Berenstein's words in her head, she decided she didn't feel the need any longer.

"Hey, bitch!"

She heard the hateful words at the same time she felt a hand to her back. Before she could stop it, Sarah shoved her into one of the lockers in the hall. THen she grabbed, her by the hair, and quickly slammed Allison's face into the metal. Blood gushed from Allison's nose.

In self-defense, Allison reached out and shoved Sarah backwards into the hall wall. She heard the thud of Sarah's body hitting the wall, then the dull crack of her skull hitting. Satisfied that was enough, Allison let go then, and turned around to face her. It had been mere seconds since Sarah had slammed Allison's face into the locker. As she turned, she saw Sarah falling to the floor, against the wall, and a school aide rushing forward.

"My god, what happened to you?"

Allison was still holding her nose, and trying to keep her blood from spurting out everywhere which took both hands.

Not afraid or stupid, Allison simply told the truth. "Sarah pushed my face into the locker,"

THe aide turned to look at Sarah.

"DId you do that?"

"Of course she did," Allison answered. She's the only one close enough. And besides, do you think I'd bash my own head into a locker?"

"Well, she pushed me into the wall."

THe aide seemed to consider something quickly, then asked Sarah, "Did she push you before or after you shoved her face into the locker door?"

"After," Sarah said.

Allison laughed aloud, but stopped when she realized it made her nose bleed more. She was surprised Sarah hadn't said she'd shoved her into the wall before Sara shoved her face into a locker.

The aide, being intelligent, pulled Sarah forward and examined her clothing. "SHe didn't lay a hand on you."

Absolutely true. Allison nodded. She hadn't needed to lay a hand on Sarah to shove her.

"If she had you would have blood on you, from the blood all over her hands. ANd even if she did push you, after what you did to her, I don't blame her one bit."

She grabbed Sarah's shirt sleeve, "Since you just admitted guilt, you're coming with me," she announced, "so we can go see the principal together. ANd you," she looked at Allison, "can come with us and stop of at the nurse's office."

I can't wait for what's coming up next. It's been in my head since the first chapter. And where are the reviews? I definitely appreciate those of you who are reviewing. It really means a lot to me, especially at the moment as I'm going through a lot of personal junk right now. THere's only a few of you reviewing, but almost a hundred people reading each chapter (chapter 2 is still lonely with 0 reviews :( ). I usually get new ideas from the readers, if I'm not already doing something with the story, you'll see reader suggestions worked in at some point.


	5. Chapter 5

_"Allison out of love_  
_No one likes you, no one does_  
_Allison is a slob_  
_We all hate you,_

_Just get lost!"_

Bo woke up with the wicked song in her head. The taunt she knew Allison had heard often, sometimes with variation, but always predictable in message- sometimes even with the same words, kids not being too creative.

She reached for a phone, but remembered that not only did she not have a phone, she didn't have Allison's phone number. She didn't even know where she lived.

Allison had two black eyes and a puffy nose. Bo remembered parts of the dream where Allison's hair was chopped off, and another one where her hair was set on fire- on purpose, by mean children around her.

Gone was Bo's secret wish to attend school like other children, not if this was what children were really like. Individually they seemed fine, but in a school they seemed worse than a pack of savage animals.

She got out of bed, and walked around the new space for a moment, her bare feet padding like a cat across the bare wooden floor. It was difficult to know where everything was all the time, when every other day or so you had a new place to live. Once she found the right room, Tate's snoring was a dead give-away, she knocked on Tate's door.

"Tate!" She called. "I need to talk!"

Honest to the last, and needing her needs met immediately.

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"Hey, I think you got a problem on your hands."

Tate stood behind Winter, in the doorway, a hand absently running over his shaven head.

Winter was staring out the window of the nearly empty living room. It took a while before he turned around to face Tate.

"What do you mean, Mister Tate?"

He looked at the man. It always annoyed him how condescending he was, coddling or patient, whatever. Like he had all the time in the world and worse, not a care in it. Tate really hated that. People without problems always pissed him off.

So he rolled his eyes before answering, "That kid friend of Bo's. Whoever, that girl that ran in between us and the FBI the other day."

"I see."

He let out an audible sigh of annoyance. He decided to say something that would get his holder's attention.

"She's stronger than Bo is. And definitely not as nice, or innocent."

Milton Winter was silent and expressionless for a long time. Tate waited.

Finally Winter asked, "What tells you that?"

"The look she had in her eyes. I know that kind of look. That, and what Bo's dreamed about her. That kid'll lose her innocence if she keeps dreaming about this kid."

Winter didn't say anything, so Tate kept talking.

"She's dangerous. A lit fuse. If that group of yours is looking to make kids into weapons, they couldn't have a better choice in this chick. Someone angry like her has got to be easier to manipulate or at least make hurt people than someone like Bo who thinks the world rains sunshine and candy."

Winter looked at him. Then spoke.

"I see."

He obviously wasn't getting the point.

"You know how often a kid getting bullied looks at the kid hurting him and wishes that kid was dead? Just wishing won't hurt that bully. But a kid like this Allison? What happens when she looks at the people hurting her and thinks, I wish you were dead?"

He watched Winter's expression darken.

"She gets bullied?" The way Winter said it made a chill run down Tate's spine. He didn't like being right, but, it seemed to Tate that he was about this.

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Allison stared at the box of Lucky Charms. She was really hungry. She also really loved Lucky Charms.

It was a bit of a surprise to be the only kid in the gas station store. After school this place was usually crowded with kids. Kids hassling other kids, kids buying junk food, and the kids stealing junk food. The place was quiet now, and relaxing. Warm sunshine came in through large windows and played against the beige shiny floor. The only sounds that were audible were those of the coolers in the store, and the hum of traffic moving outside.

Allison felt her shoulders drop down in a brief feeling of safety. In truth she was looking at everything through a pair of sunglasses. She wore them not because the sun was too bright, but to cover up the bruised and broken face Sarah Mueller had given her. She also wore her long curls down over her face, to better help conceal her bruises.

Allison sighed and looked at the box of Lucky Charms, determined to feel happy. I should get some of those, she told herself.

Allison weighed the odds for a moment, then she stared at the box in front of her on the shelf until it disappeared. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated for another minute. Then she opened her eyes, smiled and headed down the aisle to where the mini-mart held what they called produce- a bowl of apples and oranges at the check out.

Staying where she was in the aisle, Allison looked at the bowl and watched one apple and one orange disappear. She waited for a moment and was about to head out when she spotted the aisle full of candy bars.

Allison bit her lip and glanced with longing at the row of candy. There was never enough to go around at the home, so anything she actually wanted (usually stuff she acquired a taste for with the newest foster parent who decided not to adopt her, or a couple who had adopted her but sent her back) was never on the menu.

Allison opened her knapsack slightly, looked at the candy she wanted until it disappeared, then waited until she felt the bulk of it inside the bag, beneath her hand.

She worried that walking out of the store she'd set off an alarm, and she walked with tense steps until she was well out of the store.

_Safe_.

Out of the parking lot, she finally allowed herself to relax, convinced the cops wouldn't be after her, and opened up her bag. Seeing the shiny Hershey bar inside she smiled. Opening the candy bar and taking a bite, she walked through the gas station parking lot towards the street that would take her to the home. Not her home. Not even a home. A building much like a kiddie jail where she was housed. Allison did not look forward to being there.

She hurried her steps until her shoes crunched on the dead grass. Letting out a sigh of utter contentment, Allison slowed as she headed to her favorite spot, the big oak stump. Sitting down, the old dead tree was almost tall enough to cover her up, and she liked that.

It wasn't hard to see her treasure sitting beside the stump. Giggling, Allison ran to the box of Lucky Charms and the orange and apple sitting on the side of the dead stump, right where she'd sent them. Allison threw her backpack to the ground next to them and sat down on the dead grass leaning against the tall stump. Then she made quick work of peeling the orange and beginning to eat.

She grinned wide at the big empty safe world in front of her, and snuggled safer against the strong feeling of tree trunk. Her heat warmed the trunk and made her very cozy indeed. She ate in peaceable silence feeling the stress of another school day starting to fade away.

Having eaten her fill, there was still more than half a box of Lucky Charms left. No problem, she figured, I'll just take it home for the other kids. But then she realized she couldn't get the box of Lucky Charms into the home without someone suspecting that she'd stolen it.

"Rats," she whispered. She really didn't mind sharing, and she liked to be generous, at least to the kids who were nice to her. Sadly she figured she'd have to leave it there in the lot.

At least I can share with the animals. The thought made her smile. So, she sprinkled the cereal around the ground, thinking of how happy it would make the squirrels.

Before Allison left the dead and vacant lot to continue the walk to the home, she grabbed up her knapsack and turned back to the stump. Addressing it as if it were a person she said,

"When the weather's warmer," she confided, "we'll have to see about getting you growing again. Don't let these idiots around here get you down. Or," she corrected, "chop you down."

She gave the stump an affectionate kiss, patted it with her hand, then turned and continued on her way


	6. Chapter 6

Tate was walking up the stairs to the church loft with a bag of Chinese food in his hand when he heard the laughter of two girls. He stopped on the steps and listened. _I left Bo five seconds ago. There was no one else in the room._

"No, that doesn't count!" Bo's shrill indignant voice was easy to recognize.

"You moved the jack too fast!" Another voice Tate didn't recognize.

"It's my turn." He definitely recognized that; the insistent voice of Bo Adams.

Finally Tate shrugged and continued walking up the stairs. For all he knew, Bo could make her shadow talk.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs did nothing to distract the girls from their game. Lying side by side, Allison and Bo were playing the age-old game of jacks on the choir room floor. They added a difficulty level that made the jacks move and float so that it was more difficult to grab them before the ball bounced on the floor a second time.

A jacks ball bounced on the floor, high, as Bo scooped a jack from the floor, then grabbed for the jack that Allison scooted out of Bo's reach-without touching the thing, of course.

He watched Bo lunge for it, then just as her tiny hand grasped around the metal, he saw Allison look at the jack, then up into the air, and like magic the metal jack popped off the floor only a few inches, but it was enough to send Bo sprawling on the floor.

The ball hit the floor at the same moment.

Allison crowed with laughter. "I win!"

Bo's wide grin matched Allison's, and it was clear that both children were sadly starved for the companionship of children their own age, and overjoyed at the current moment to have a playmate- even if that playmate did seem to cheat at the game of jacks.

"I go first," Allison smiled. She bounced the ball hard against the floor. Tate was pleased to see that she used her hands at least for some things. As she reached out her slender hand to grasp all the jacks that were lying on the floor, Bo made them all fly upward in a bundle.

"Ha!" She exclaimed triumphantly.

In a flash, Allison was on her feet. She snatched the jacks from the air just as the red ball hit the floor.

"You lose this time!" Bo hooted with laughter. Then she rolled over and plopped herself down on her back, like a dog.

Tate laughed aloud as well. "Why didn't you just use your crazy mind powers to grab them?" It seemed the logical choice to him.

Allison turned to look at him, not seeming surprised in the least to see him there and answered, "I didn't think of it."

She shrugged and sat back down, dropping all the jacks in front of her.

As if this were all a normal thing, Tate dropped the bag of food in front of the girls, figuring they'd go at it like a bunch lions.

He sat back in one of the chairs and watched as the duo did just that, waiting for Winter to come upstairs with his share of the food, and some money. He wasn't doing this for free, after all.

"So, how'd you get here?" He directed the question to Allison's boney back, which was easy to see through her blue t-shirt, her jean jacket long been cast aside on the floor.

Bo was handing all her food to Allison, who was shoving the food down her throat as if she thought she'd never eat again.

Deeming her own observation as more important, Bo announced, "You'll like her, Tate. She steals."

Mouth crammed with food, Allison could only stare in wide-eyed shock at her friend.

"You sound like she's here for a stay," Tate replied looking dour.

"I'm not babysitting two kids," he added. "You're more than enough."

Bo shrugged, not caring and answered Tate's original question.

"She's been here since this morning."

Tate leaned forward in his seat. "What?"

Allison looked at him, a stray curl falling in a line over her eye and cheek, those cheeks as full as a chipmunk's and nodded.

"I told her to sleep up here, so no one would find her."

Another nod from Allison.

"How," he began to repeat the question again with large emphasis on how, "did she get here?"

Bo blinked her brown eyes at him and shrugged. "I dunno."

It was true. She had an idea, but she didn't know exactly.

"I didn't ask any questions," she added. "But Allison was really tired and I didn't want to have to answer any questions from you or Milton or Channing until I had some answers, and she only woke up a little while ago-"

Tate interrupted her. "Which is why you said you wanted to come up here to play with Stanley."

Bo nodded.

Tate smirked. "So," his grin widened, "you lied." He laughed a bit happy to see the kid's perfect facade cracking.

"No, I didn't." She objected. "I did want to come up here and play with Stanley. That way Allison could see him, too."

Tate shook his head and let it go.

Just then he heard Winter's footsteps on the stairs.

"Well, Mr. Tate," Tate heard Winter's voice before he saw him, "here is your lunch, and the portion of money."

He stepped through the doorway and into the vaulted choir loft as he finished, "Miss Channing is finding a better place to park our car."

He gave both to Tate, then wiped his brow, looking around the room as he said, "My it does seem warmer up here, doesn't it?" Before laying his eyes on what he knew had to be Allison.

What happened next happened so fast that neither Tate nor Bo was quick enough to process it, or stop it from happening


	7. Chapter 7

Milton Winter's eyes were on Bo the moment he entered the room.

He saw her blue jacket being used as a cushion on the floor, her long blond-brown hair falling over her shoulders. She was lying on her stomach, knees bent, feet up in the air behind her.

The child next to her mirrored her almost exactly- but for the fact she was eating. She stopped when Milton entered the room. He saw her yellow blonde curls circling her head like a halo. She turned when she heard Milton's voice, and sat up.

Bo beamed up at him, eyes shinning.

"Who's that?" Allison asked, eyeing the man warily.

Still smiling, not taking her eyes off him, Bo answered, "That's Milton."

As if that were all the explanation needed in the world.

Milton saw the girl's eyes and brow become questions.

Quickly, though her body seemed frozen in fear, Allison's eyes darted to Bo, looking for more answers.

Allison's grey eyes were large in her thin, pale face. Bo's eyes still on Milton, Allison seemed to content herself with staring at the back of Bo's skull.

Suddenly Allison screamed in fear, pushing herself backward towards the wall, in a desperate attempt to get away.

"What's wrong?" Bo turned herself back, her large brown eyes seeking Allison's grey ones.

Allison screamed again, putting her hands up in front of herself.

"Get away from me!" She yelled, her chest rising and falling as she gasped for breath.

Bo couldn't understand why her new friend should be afraid of Milton. While she was pondering this, Allison tried to back further away. When she hit the wall, she let out a whimper of fear.

Then Bo understood why.

"No!" She cried out. "He's not like that!"

Allison was already shaking her head in negation before Bo finished her statement.

Milton held up both hands and began to crouch down nearer to the floor, as to look less threatening. He'd learned that to a child, someone his size seemed the same as an imposing giant.

Bo ran to Allison and grabbed the other girl by her bony shoulders. "No!" She yelled. "He's not like that! That's not him!"

Allison seemed to be deaf to Bo's pleas. As soon as Bo's hands touched her, Bo's dark blond hair began to blow backward as if pushed by wind. Impulsively, Allison grabbed Bo with her own two hands, in a protective motion, and pulled her boldly to her own body, in an obvious effort to keep Bo safe from the man in front of them.

"You're not listening to me!" Bo's words were frustrated, angry even.

But the more Bo protested, the more vehemently Allison felt she must protect her. With one swift motion, she pulled Bo's head down to her, as if to shield her, then on further thought, her pushed Bo down on the ground, and moved her own body to block her.

"Little girl," Milton kept his voice calm, and soft, "it's okay. No one's going to hurt you here."

That was the last straw.

Allison curled herself into a ball on the floor, as if giving up, arms covering the back of her head as if she were prey.

Then she screamed.

"No!"

The word was a force unto itself. Not a shrill scream, but a loud scream. A scream that could deafen. Loud the way that a jet engine is loud.

As she screamed, Milton Winter was pushed backward as if by the force of her scream.

Milton was shoved to the brick wall behind him. But Allison wasn't done yet.

As her scream continued, Milton Winter's body hit the wall with a loud cracking, but the force of the girl's scream continued to propel him on, shattering the bricks, forcing his body to careen through the wall with a speed and force that was unbelievable.

"No!" Bo shrieked and hit Allison with her hands, trying to stop her.

"Milton!"

But even over Bo's screams, you could hear the shattering of bricks as Milton Winter's body continued to be thrown through the last outer wall of the building


	8. Chapter 8

Allison was still curled up in a tight ball.

Tate was frozen in shock, staring in the direction Winter had flown.

"Go!" Bo screamed.

She meant, of course, go save Milton.

Unfrozen from shock, Tate made for the stairwell door. seeing Bo try to follow him he kept going but yelled over his shoulder, "Bo, stay up here! Stay!"

After all, Tate knew that if Milton was squashed on the ground like a bug, the kid wasn't going to want to see that.

With Tate gone, Bo turned on Allison. All she could see of her was her yellow hair that covered most of her back, her blue jeaned butt, and the rubber backs of her sneakers.

With fury unaccustomed, Bo gave the other girl a swift kick.

Allison had just begun to uncurl herself before Bo's action.

"Ow! That hurt."

Bo's little face was red and scrunched up with rage at Allison's lack of remorse. "You killed Milton!" She screamed, and shoved Allison to the floor.

"I was protecting you, stupid!" Allison sat up, then pushed herself up to standing and pushed Bo back.

"No, you weren't!" The words were a screech. She shoved Allison harder.

"Shows what you know," she glared.

Bo pushed Allison again.

"Quit it!"

"No!" Bo insisted. "You killed my best friend. You killed my family!"

Seeing Allison roll her eyes at her righteous concern, Bo screamed in rage and punched Allison in the face.

The moment she did so, Bo immediately felt sorry, realizing at that moment that Allison still had a broken nose.

Allison took the advantage and punched back, hard, sending Bo to the floor.

Tate ran down the stairs with small rapid steps. He was running out the door and circling to the side yard of the church. He was wondering why he was running. It wasn't like Milton was going to be saveable. He was going to be splattered all over the ground. Just as Tate was considering this, and slowing his pace down to avoid or at least slow down the sight of the gruesome death of Milton Winter, his eyes saw Winter. Tate stopped dead in his tracks.

"What the f*ck?" He let his jaw hang open as he stared.

Milton Winter was sitting up on the paved ground, inside the gated lot, wiping dust off of his head, shoulders, and arms.

"Holy mother of-"

"Mister Tate," Winter's voice called to him.

William Tate just kept staring. Winter had risen to his feet and was continuing to brush red brick dust from his clothes.

"Mister Tate," he repeated, apparently less shocked at his lifeness than Tate was.

"Mister Tate!" He snapped the words to snap Tate out of his shock. Tate shook his head, mouth still hanging open.

"What?"

"Please tell Bo that I am well. I suspect she may be worried."

Tate just stared and nodded. "Yeah."

To further Winter's reasoning he added, "Young Allison can control her powers, Miss Bo cannot." Meaning, injury to either child was a real possibility.

"Mister Tate? Go!" He motioned his hands to the church door.

With a backward glance again, still unable to believe that Milton Winter had survived being thrown through a building, as well as a two story drop to the ground, Tate headed back to the entrance of the church.

He was in the downstairs doorway when he decided that Bo wasn't too concerned about Winter's wellbeing at that moment. He decided that because he heard the distinct sounds of a 'girl fight'. He heard both Bo and Allison's screams and yells, accompanied by lots of thudding sounds.

With a long tired sigh, he headed up the stairs, walking slowly.

"I am not a babysitter," he growled.

Not my fav chapter. Sorry, it's been kinda a crappy week and I've yet to pull myself out of a massive funk. Actually it kinda sucks, but thinking about how much it sucks depresses me more. And then I try to fix it, but my mind just can't manage it, and that depressed me too. Sorry.


	9. Chapter 9

Tate sighed with annoyance as he crossed the threshold to the loft choir room. There were several graduated circular rings etched and cracked into the space, on the wood floor, the walls...

"Damn, Bo." He recognized the anger work of his charge.

The duo who only a matter of seconds ago was an amiable pair, was rolling around on the floor fighting like a couple of angry rats, a couple of screaming, angry rats who fought ineffectually. He rolled his eyes and stepped towards the rolling thrashing tumbleweeds, his boots making clomping sounds on the floor.

No, he considered, rats fight better than that.

They fight like a couple of girls, he corrected himself.

"Stop it!" He yelled the words, disgusted, swooping in with both arms, grabbing each respective rug rat by the back of their shirts, lifting them each bodily off the floor. Both kids were so small it felt like he was holding up two sacks of floor. He dropped each kid back down on the floor. They stood there, staring at him, obviously annoyed at having their fight disrupted.

"God, at least learn how to fight," he grumbled. "There's no point in fighting if you don't actually plan on hurting the other person. Rolling around on the floor and slapping each other is pathetic."

Before either kid could respond he shoved each of them to a different corner of the room, separating them further.

"You, over there," he pushed Bo backwards towards Stanley who'd ended up in the jutting overhang closest to the pulpit down on the first floor.

"And you," he looked more sternly at Allison, "sit right there," he pushed her backward till she fell back on her butt on the floor on the other side of the room.

He was satisfied with his work when each annoying kid was glaring darkly at him, arms crossed on their chest.

Bo's eyes sought his own. "She tried to kill Milton!" Bo's voice was full of angst and scorn.

"Well that tells me you know she didn't," he answered back evenly. "He's fine, by the way."

Allison rolled her eyes, disgusted. "Told you," she glared at Bo.

Milton Winter came in the room then, taking in the signs that told him his Bo had been very angry, and in all odds, the two children had been fighting.

"Milton!" Bo was racing towards him arms outstretched for a hug, then she stopped short, realizing he might be too hurt to hug.

Milton Winter chuckled. "I'm just fine, Miss Bo," he grinned.

She grinned back and happily embraced him. Her face was turned facing Allison however, and when she saw her, she defensively clung tighter to Milton, making clear motions of needing to protect him from Allison. She glared at her.

That was enough for Allison. She rushed forward, fully ready to re-engage in some form of combat.

"Mister Tate," Winter's words were sharp and quick with a slight tinge of panic.

"Take Miss Allison here."

Tate did as told, easily enough, though looked none the happier for it. "Sure, so she can kill me now."

Allison turned her anger on him. "That's not funny," she snarled.

Tate's voice was flat. "It wasn't a joke."

He let her go then.

Looking at her it was clear the kid wanted a fight. Desperately wanted a fight.

He sighed. "I know that look." He said it kindly, as he did.

"Mister Tate," Winter's voice was soft. "Why don't you take our guest downstairs and see if you can't find-"

"A punching bag for her," Tate finished.

Before Allison could get any crazy ideas, Tate grabbed her by the shoulder and began to lead her to the doorway.

"Why should I go with you?" She demanded. "I don't have to do anything you say."

"It was a suggestion," Tate answered. "Just come with me." At least this was something he could help with.

"I'm not leaving her alone with him." Allison didn't say the words with much conviction, more like she needed to show that she had reason to shove the other man through an entire building.

"You just fought her." It was obvious already that Allison had gotten at least one good punch in. Bo's cheek was very red. "What do you care?"

Allison opened her mouth, then realizing she didn't have a good answer, closed it. As Tate began to lead her to the stairs she quickly said, "I don't trust him."

"You don't trust me either." Tate knew this was true. It had to be.

Allison shrugged.

"I trust you more than I trust him."

Tate laughed. "No you don't."

Bo spoke up then. "Milton is fine. You can trust him." She smiled, happy again.

Allison rolled her eyes in annoyance at Bo's sickening sweet look. She looked sidelong at Tate her eyes saying, are they serious?

Tate chuckled. "You get used to it. Sort of."

"I don't plan on getting used to it."

Tate shrugged. "Come on. Come downstairs. If you want a fight, I can give you one."

Milton's eyebrows shot up in alarm. _That's not a good thing to say to her. _


	10. Chapter 10

Light running steps on the stairs indicated Channing was on her way. In seconds she was in the door, her long dark locks blown slightly astray. "It's almost impossible to find parking around here," she announced, sounding only slightly winded, "you know that?"

In her hands were the car's keys and a second bag of Chinese food, as well as a large bag from a local deli. Apparently she'd gone a ways to find parking.

"Don't worry," she spoke answering an unanswered question, "most people parked around here are for a church service a few blocks down, once that's done with I can move the car back without a problem."

When no one answered, Channing looked around the room, recognizing Bo's marks all over the place. "What happened?"

"You picked a hell of a time to show up," Tate snorted with condescending laughter. "You missed the whole thing!"

Though it had only been a half an hour since the 'wall throwing incident', Tate had already finished watching Allison beat to crap everything he could find that was hit-able. Then she'd sat on the floor and cried. Then Tate started talking to her about his life- and she immediately fell asleep. Annoyed, he'd picked her up and carried her back up to the choir room where Winter and Bo were.

Channing's eyes fell to Allison, now sleeping and snoring on a pew.

"Who's she?"

Tate laughed out loud. "You really missed the show this time, Channing.

Channing narrowed her eyes at him. "I was doing my job," she hissed. Looking at Winter she asked,

"What is he talking about?"

Milton Winter nodded towards Allison. "We have a guest for lunch." This was all he'd say as way of explanation in front of Bo.

"She's really, really tired, Milton," Bo was sitting on the floor tossing Stanley up and down while staring at her friend's sleeping form, really regretting being so angry with her, but also really wishing she hadn't thrown her favorite person through walls.

"And she already ate lunch. She'll probably sleep while we eat."

Winter nodded. "I would imagine so after all that."

Channing handed Winter utensils, a drink and a carton of food, before seating herself on the nearest pew in the balcony and beginning to eat as well.

"I didn't help it making her fight me." Bo placed Stanley on the floor and stared at Allison.

Tate began laughing, having learned quite a bit about this new kid while allowing her to work out some considerable anger. "I seriously doubt she expended much energy fighting you."

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Are you forgetting, Mr. Tate, that Allison is considerably smaller than Bo? Physically weaker?"

"She's scrawny, that's all," he shrugged. He didn't mention how well the kid could fight, or the idea he had that she'd had to, often.

Milton Winter looked at Bo seriously. "Bo, tell me; how did Miss Allison get here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

Milton put his food down, then stood up from the pew he'd been seated on to kneel before Bo. Then he gently reached out to take Bo's chin in his fingers, raising her face up till their eyes met. "But she didn't take a train or a bus, did she Miss Bo?"

Bo shook her head and looked back down at the floor, as if ashamed. "No," she whispered.

"She used her powers to get here?" He knew anyone that could do what Allison did would be able to do more.

Bo nodded.

"And that's why she's so tired. Because she used up all her energy."

She nodded.

"Looks like you won't need me after all," Tate spoke up.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You said I was here to protect Bo. Well, I think we have a new candidate for the position."

Winter laughed. "I see what you mean, Mr. Tate." He made his way back to his lunch and began halfing it. That done, he passed half of his food to Bo. Bo just sighed, uninterested.

"She's stronger than I am, Milton."

He nodded again.

"I know that, baby."

"She hurt you."

"She didn't hurt me."

Tate laughed. "She threw you through a building, Winter!"

"You're joking." Channing's face reflected shock as well as interest.

Winter looked over at her, realizing just how much she'd missed. "I'll fill you in later, Miss Channing."

Bo picked up where she'd left off. "She could have hurt you."

"Yes," he nodded with gravity, "she could have. But," he looked Bo in her eyes, "she didn't."

"She can control her powers." Envy, but not jealousy, was evident in Bo's tone.

"Yes, Miss Bo, it would seem that she certainly can."

"But what if she couldn't? She could really hurt someone, couldn't she?"

Tate answered this one. "Yup."

Milton knew Bo was thinking of her own concerns and insecurities about her abilities, as well as the telekenetic fight she'd just won, and smiled gently at her. "But she hasn't," he reminded her.

Bo sighed, as if heavily burdened. "No, she has, Milton. She has hurt people. On accident and on purpose. She wanted to hurt you."

"No." He shook his head slowly. "She wanted to get me away from you. You know that. If she wanted to hurt me, she could have and no doubt would have."

"That's a good point- why didn't she hurt you? Why'd she bother shoving you through a building?"

Bo answered Tate's question herself. "She didn't have all the information. All she saw was me at Orchestra and that you were there too."

Tate put two and two together. "She thought he was doing crazy experiments on you."

"She thought he was doing what Dr. Skouras did to me," Bo corrected.

Tate felt a cold chill run up and down his spine. He shuddered, and hoped someone would change the topic soon.

Trying to get this part finished before tomorrow's episode, but I'm going out of town tonight so...I doubt it. No spoilers anyone!


	11. Chapter 11

Allison Cramer didn't awaken from her nap until after three in the afternoon. But, having woken, she yawned loudly, stretched her entire body like a cat, then sat up wide-eyed and ready to go.

"Hi," she smiled at Bo.

Bo grinned back. "You slept a long time."

"I was tired."

"I guess."

"I'm sorry I hit you."

"You should be."

Not liking Bo's tone, or the implication that she was wrong, or had been found lacking Allison added,

"I'm only sort of sorry I threw that guy through the building."

"Milton," Bo stood up, "his name is Milton."

Allison shrugged. "Whatever."

"He's nice, you shouldn't have done that!"

Allison rolled her eyes again. "Nice gratitude."

"You could have killed him!"

"I didn't."

"But you could have!"

"I didn't."

"Then why'd you throw him though the whole building?"

"To get him away from you."

"But you could have killed him."

"You're absolutely right," Allison looked Bo straight in the eye, "I could have."

But you had all these sappy stupid thoughts about him being your family or something, so I figured at the last minute I better not. So I didn't."

"But you still threw him through the church!"

"She was telling him that she could kill him." Tate looked at her, and continued, "If he hurt you. It was a warning, Bo."

"Why?"

Allison shrugged. "Just in case."

Standing up, she saw person sized holes in the two inner walls she'd pushed Milton Winter through, along with the plaster on the floor of the balcony room they were in now. With a sigh of annoyance, Allison sat down in front of the broken wall, and began through that hole, to repair the hole in the second wall. She sat patiently, as if putting a puzzle together.

Bo, Channing, Winter and Tate all watched in silence as Allison worked on the wall. A few minutes later Allison was finished. She sighed, brushed her palms together as if they'd gotten dusty, or as if she'd actually touched the bricks and plaster.

Allison looked around the room, her eyes pausing at all the marks Bo'd made while screaming and trying to fight her.

"You should clean up your mess, too," she advised.

Bo's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"How?"

Allison looked at her, trying to figure out if Bo was joking or not. Then with another sigh, Allison flicked her curls over her shoulder and answered, "Just undo it."

"How?"

Allison shrugged. "Well, however you made all those circles, just un do them."

"I don't know how."

Allison made a face. "How can you not know how?"

"I don't even know how I made those in the first place," Bo confessed. "It just happens."

Allison puckered up her lips in disapproval. "That's weird." She thought it over for a moment. "Well, just try," she offered.

With a shrug Bo walked over to the closest set of circles on the floor. Closing her eyes she concentrated on the wood and it's rings.

After several moments she stopped, worn out. Nothing had changed.

"No, no!" Allison pushed Bo aside. "Like this!"

Allison knelt down on the floor and put her hand in the middle of the rings. The rings were larger than her hand and extended out like ripples in a pool. Without closing her eyes, or seeming to expend any effort, the rings began to pull together, shrink, and then disappear entirely, until the floor was back to normal.

"That's really neat," Bo gushed. "How'd you do that?"

"I just think about something and it happens. It's easy with stuff that's alive."

"The floor isn't alive," Bo answered looking at Allison as if she were nuts.

"Well, it's more alive than a piece of plastic is. At least it used to be alive."

"It's organic," Winter provided the correct terminology. "Meaning, not man-made."

"Stuff like that wants to go back to normal, and it knows what it's normal is. Sometimes it just needs help getting there."

"Speaking of getting somewhere," Milton Winter smiled gently at Allison, " young Miss Allison, just how did you get here to us?"

Allison's calm features screwed up in distaste.

"I wasn't talking to you," she muttered, scowling.

When Milton looked at her with disapproval, Allison looked sideward to Bo, then back at Winter. Leaning away from him, even though he was nowhere near her, she answered,

"I'm not going to be one of your experiments," this assertation was said as if she expected to be scooped up and put in a cage.

"No one said anything of the sort."

"She did,"Allison pointed a finger at Bo, and stood up from the floor.

"No, I didn't," Bo answered back. "You didn't see the whole truth."

"I saw enough."

"But that wasn't Milton. Milton took me away from those people."

Allison remained unconvinced. "But he's planning on taking you back." She said this as if it were fact.

Bo looked at Allison as if she'd lost her sense. "You know that isn't true."

"But he could take you back there. Or they could get you and take you back there, or all the other people that do stuff like that could get you."

"Who could get me?" Bo was genuinely curious.

"All the people who are believe in powers. People who want to use other people's powers for their own good. People who want to do experiments on special people."

Tate knew a bluff when he saw one. "You watch too much Sci-fi, kid."

"But there _are_ groups like that, you're running from one."

A smile curled on Milton's lips. "Touche."

"And don't think for a minute that they are the only group of people like that. You know when one person has a good idea they think they are the only person with it, but there are thousands of other people who want that same thing and have that same idea and are doing the exact same thing. Don't think that Orchestra is the only group out there, Milton."

Instead of making reply to Allison's comment, Milton said instead, "I think it's time for you to go home, Allison. I don't want people to worry about you."

Bo winced at the feelings that immediately came from Allison at Milton's words. But instead of voicing them she asked,

"Are you sure you can make it back okay?"

Allison gave Bo a sad smile. "Yeah," she answered, her voice dejected, clearly not wanting to leave. Then she smiled and asked, "You want to see a test drive?"

Eagerly Bo bobbed her head, nodding. Allison shrugged up one shoulder.

"Where's Stanley?"

Bo looked over to the far end of the choir room balcony, spotting him. Then he dissapeared.

Bo's jaw dropped, in shock before genuine concern came in. Before she could be too concerned, Allison made the turtle re-appear on Tate's lap. Tate, who was sitting by the doorway, tossed Stanley off him as if it carried plague. "I don't want this thing!"

Like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, then Allison disappeared.

"That's one hell of a party trick," Tate said the words with a mixture of admiration and apprehension.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm back, but not for a good reason. Had a horrific time out of town, so for my own sanity I turned around and came home. Computer's not letting me watch the last episode, so I'll just keep this chapter in the location of the church, and depending on what happens with the next episode of Believe go from there.

Bo woke up screaming.

At first it was a scream of terror. Then realizing that she was awake and the reason for her nightmare was not a dream at all, she began screaming in rage, outrage, horror, the need to help someone who was too far away to help. She used all her mind powers and all her concentration to make it stop, to help Allison, but all that happened was a lot of screams, the air shook and the floor reverberated. But nothing Bo Adams could do did or could help Allison Cramer.

Tate was at her side in a heartbeat, followed by Channing and then Milton Winter.

"What's wrong?" Tate demanded, taking Bo's hands in his own because Bo's hands were raking through her hair and down her face in anguish, drawing blood as they did so.

"I told you we shouldn't have let her leave!" She screamed again, directing her words at Milton.

Milton was shocked into silence for a moment. Never in his life had his Bo taken such a savage tone with him, or anyone else for that matter.

"She couldn't stay here Bo, she's not a puppy. She needed to go back to her home. Her parents would worry about her. The only smart thing she did in coming here when she did was that it was Saturday, so at least she wasn't missing school."

"She doesn't have a home to go to!" Bo wailed, fat tears rolling down her now red cheeks.

This was news to Milton.

"Is the child homeless?" He asked, genuine concern etched in every crevice of his face.

Bo lowered her gaze and moaned in pain. She grabbed Tate's hands and looked at him earnestly. "You have to help her," she pleaded. "We have to help her!"

"Why?" Tate asked, just as Channing said,

"We can't go all over the place Bo. Our reason for all this is to help you."

"But she needs help too!"

"I think Miss Allison can take care of herself."

"No she can't!" She pulled away from Tate though her current surge of anger was at Milton's last statement, and in a fit of rage pushed a ring of circles into the cement wall, with a force that pushed her bed back three feet, with her and Tate sitting on it.

"Bo, what's wrong?"

"She needs help!" Bo screamed the words and sobbed. "She can't fix everything! She's too scared," she cried. "She's too scared. It's awful," she moaned. "Make it stop."

Tate picked her up.

"Stop reading her mind," he warned. "Stop watching, stop looking."

Snot, tears and sweat were mixed on Bo's red little face, her brown blond hair wet with sweat and clinging to her body in chunks.

"We have to help her," she sobbed, but let her body slump against Tate's when he reached for her this time. In a moment of desperation she closed her eyes and tried as hard as she could to get herself to go to Allison the way that Allison had come to her.

"Bo, sweetheart," Milton's familiar hand touched Bo's hot cheek. "Don't do that. Don't even try. You don't know where you'll end up."

Bo's scrunched up eyes opened. "But we need to help her! Someone has to help her!"

"Tell us what you're seeing Bo," Channing offered, sitting on the foot of the bed next to Tate, while Winter knelt in front of Bo.

"Blood," she answered. "There's a lot of blood." She sniffled. "And she's really really scared. She was really scared," she corrected, "more scared before."

"Why?" Milton asked.

"She thought they were going to kill her."

Tate shuddered as he put the pieces together. "She lives in an asylum."

"What?" Channing looked at Tate as if he were nuts.

"You mean an orphanage."

Tate shook his head. "No, I mean an asylum. The place for kids that nobody wants. If she's not living in a foster home, then she's living in a building that makes prison life look like paradise. And if that's the case, it's no wonder she's stronger than Bo. She'd have to have been forced to defend herself all her life."

"Just because she has powers doesn't mean she doesn't need help too," Bo turned to Winter. "She still needs people! And she doesn't have anyone that cares about her!"

Tate recognized the same look of helpless indignation and anger that he'd seen on Allison's face. Though Allison had become cold, bitter and resigned to her fate, this reality, the cruelty of the world was all new to Bo.

He grabbed both of her pillows and held them up. "Punch them," he offered.

"This isn't helping Allison!"

Milton Winter shook his head sadly, sorry to see her hurting. "We can't go and help her, Bo."

"And if you tried to save every little girl that had bad things happen to her, well you'd never get it done."

"Is she okay now? Is she safe?"

For the first time Bo looked at Milton as if he'd both lost his senses and become a cruel person.

"No, Milton," she answered hotly, in a tone usually reserved for Tate, "she isn't okay. She's alive but she is definitely not okay."

"And,  
she finished, "you can't be safe where she's living."

Tate nodded in agreement.

When Bo had cried herself back to sleep, hot tears of rage instead of sadness, Winter took both Channing and Tate into the next room.

"We cannot have this child traveling with us. We already have one child with an Amber Alert in our care."

Channing shrugged. "What's one more?"

Tate shook his head. "Believe me, I'm not saying we should, but trust me, if she left no one would notice and no one would look for her. Kids leave the orphanages left and right just to be safer. They slip through the cracks. And there are too many news kids needing a spot that they don't bother to look for the ones who have left."

Milton was staring at him so he added, "I'm just saying, it would be easier to have Allison around than to have Bo around. No one's gonna Amber Alert an invisible kid,"

Channing looked sideways at him. "You mean because you can make herself disappear?"

Tate shook his head. "No. She's invisible because she's an orphan living in an asylum. That's only a short step above being a homeless child."

Milton Winter sighed. "You have a point, Mr. Tate."

"We can't go and get her," Channing objected.

Winter's voice was even as he replied, "We'll do nothing of the sort. But, if what Bo and Mr. Tate are saying is true, she may indeed be safer with us than where she is now."

"Not to mention the fact that if Skouras heard about her he'd be trying to find her too."

Milton gave a single nod of his head, then looked away.

"I'm not saying that we should go and save her," he reminded them. "But," he paused, "if she should show up, I may be less inclined to encourage her to go home."


	13. Chapter 13

Allison sat at her desk feeling numb. Staring at the faux wood desk top, but not seeing it. Not seeing anything. Too many thoughts were whurring in her brain, churning and frothing and freezing frightening. She sat there trying not to think, trying not to feel. But all she could feel was pain, and all she could think was don't people know there are more important things than school? More important things than doing homework?

She heard the meaningless sounds of the everyday. The sounds of pencils across paper. The sounds of pages turning. Children coughing. Seat legs scraping the tile floor. Feet moving.

"All right,time's up!"

Allison barely roused from the mists of her own concerns.

"I'll let you pick your own groups," Mrs. Berenstein gifted the class. "But," she warned if you can't get along, we go back to me placing you into groups like kindergarteners."

Allison heard that. She closed her eyes wishing to disappear. Wishing that the pain that was to come could vanish. The humiliation. The loneliness. The burning, stinging pain that said that she was a monster. That she was a demon. A bad person. That she was grotesque, hideous, unwantable.

After all, isn't that what they said all the time? And what could she say in response? It was all true after all. Allison had no one that loved her. No one that even liked her. No one at the home cared for her at all, the kids all treating her as the kids at school did,though sometimes slightly less cruel. No one wanted her. No one. She was always looked over. She knew how the cats and the dogs in their cages at the animal shelter felt all alone, the shame, the pain of being passed by, passed by, not wanted.

Allison began to feel cold,with a violent suddenness that she shook,shivered. It was the cold that came when she felt she had done wrong. And the wrong she did now was exist. The wrong of failing to be wanted. Failing to be wanted by anyone.

Allison's shoulders hunched up to her ears, as if like a turtle, Allison could protect herself from the additional inevitable pain that was to come. Why, oh why did teachers make you do this? Choosing partners for groups only seemed nice to the people who were wanted by others. And no one in the room wanted Allison Cramer.

"Jason! Over here!" Allison heard Nick's voice call out from across the room, and heard but through blurred eyes did not see, Jason hurry to the other desk across from the room.

It was the same all over.

"Amy, come in my group!" Sarah's voice.

"Jackson, come on,man!"

"No, Michelle and Alia, you two can be in my group, and Tiffany and Stephanie you two can sit next to us and be your own group with Ashley and Miley."

"Aw, come on Mitch, you don't wanna be in Jackson's group, get in my group!"

"Come on, hurry up!"

Allison looked at her desktop feeling as if she were being beaten with stones, hunched over wanting to escape, feeling all her classmates, the people she had always been kind and considerate to, because she knew what it felt like to be treated meanly, abandon the space around her and form globs of groups around the room.

Allison shook her head slightly to force her curls to fall down on either side of her head like a curtain. Others couldn't see her face well, but she could easily see through individual curls. She was like an island alone unto herself. There was not a single member of the class without a group, with the exception of herself, of course.

Bright sunshine came through the tall windows and fell in bright streaks across the floor and desks, and the backs of students, but to a person with no family, and no friends the world certainly looked bleak.

She didn't know what was worse, the humiliation of continuing to sit there alone, or the humiliation of getting up, walking over and asking, "Can I be in your group?" Having to ask was bad enough. But waiting for the inevitable "No", was worse.

Through her curls she could see Mrs. Berenstein looking at her. The woman sighed. Allison didn't need to try to read her thoughts. She was trying to think of a tactful way to get Allison into a group.

Allison knew how that would go. Mrs. Berenstein might say, "Michelle, why doesn't Allison join your group?"

And Michelle, or any of the girls would says, "No, I don't want her in my group!"

It didn't go any better for her when Mrs. Berenstein put them into groups. Sure, Allison could avoid the shame of sitting alone, but then she'd have to hear cries of disgust and revulsion and "Not her! Why'd I have to be put in a group with Allison?What did I ever do to deserve this?"

Allison sighed. She wasn't sure why she bothered to hide her cuts and bruises that morning, the beating she was taking now was just as bad.

... Okay where IS everybody? I feel alone. I see there's more people following, but I think Erica's the only one actually reading. Also, I'm not sure yet if I want to follow along with each episode or make this it's own thing, or a mixture of both. Thoughts?


	14. Chapter 14

Allison was sitting on a really hard,really painful chair realizing that she must be in more pain because her emotional state was horrible. The only thing that helped her block out all her pain from what she'd endured the night before was because all her mental abilities were focused on just that. Now, being pulled out of her concentrated shell, it was impossible to ignore her feelings of inadequatecy. The painful feelings that said you're ugly,you're stupid, you're a bitch, everything they all say about you is true. If it wasn't true, don't you think people would be nicer to you?

In truth, every single piece of evidence could only point back at her with blame. After all in every single act of hate against her she was the only common factor. So, logic dictated that the fault was with her.

And if it were just the kids at school,she might be able to better resist the thoughts in her head that echoed her awfulness. How deep down inside she must be like Hitler or something, give off some sort of invisible sign that said "I'm a horrible person. I kill kittens. I hate everyone. Stay away from me. Hate me. Don't love me. Don't even like me. Treat me like an animal or a robot without feelings. In fact, I don't have feelings, so treat me as bad as you want"

But it wasn't just the kids at school. It was the kids at the home,too. She buried herself in books while there, not because she liked to read, but as a way to escape the reality that she lived in.

Even the adult staff at the home seemed to avoid her, or maybe feel sorry for her. But, no one wanted her. She'd had a few foster parents when she was very little,even a couple that wanted to adopt her because she "looks just like Shirley Temple",whoever that was. But so many weird things happened when Allison was around them, things like locked doors opening when the adult's arms were full of groceries, or someone falling down the stairs,and then suddenly not falling, or fire being spontaneously put out before the fire department arrived, nice things like that. Things that people should have been grateful for, were ultimately the reason that Allison was rejected time and time again. Of course they couldn't prove that Allison herself did those things, to say that she did would mean opening that adult to ridicule over their sanity. So instead they said things like, "She just isn't a good fit." Or, "I can't explain it, but strange things happen when that girl is around."

And so, time and again, no matter how nice Allison was, no matter how polite, no matter that she cooked and cleaned and smiled big and made sure that she was nothing but sweet, and cute and useful, all the things she'd learned from cartoon movies that would make parents love you, Allison was always sent back to this place. The over-crowded jail that was the state orphanage. They never let the kids there watch "Annie", because it would get their hopes up. After all, everyone knew that if you weren't a toddler or a little baby,odds were that you would never be adopted. And so the girls and boys at the orphanage were full of hate, and rage,just like Allison. But unlike Allison, they acted on that rage towards each other. The boys, especially, were savage.

People stayed away from her as if she smelled. And Allison learned long ago, that was a good thing, because if these monsters known as children, either within the Home or at school came near her voluntarily it was never because they were going to be nice. It was because they were going to do something monsterous to her.

But, Allison had a plan. Sort of a plan. Sitting in class, supposedly to work on a project 'by herself', she started to think of ways that she could make things easier for herself. Maybe when they did come near her, she could use her static trick. It wouldn't give off enough of a charge to kill anyone, just enough to hurt. Just enough to keep them away. Unless she upped the amps. After all, who would think a kid could produce electricity? If someone said, "Allison just electrocuted me," people would think that person was nuts.

After all the failed foster homes and adoptions, Allison had learned to control her powers out of necessity, and never show them in public. Being around Bo Adams and her father Tate was the only time she'd actually felt safe using her powers. Or, maybe it was because of that first time protecting Bo, and the two hadn't seemed repulsed or terrified of what she did. Besides, at that point, what Bo did made what she could do look like nothing.

What if I just made myself invisible? Or, what if I say I'm going to the bathroom, and once I'm in a stall where no one can see me I just send myself over to the empty lot? Allison smiled. She liked that idea. She'd always dreamed of having a safe place outside where no one could find her. A place that was all her own where no one could find her or hurt her.

It's not like they'd care if I left anyway. Even the teachers would probably be happy I was gone.

Suddenly Allison felt as if a knife were being stabbed into her leg. Unable to help herself, she screamed in pain, clutching her leg.

The classroom and it's reality came rushing back as Allison heard the room stop, and felt all eyes on her. Without thinking she rose from her seat, and began moving towards the door, calling out the excuse, "I haveta go to the bathroom!"

She had an arm over her stomach as a decoy, and with her talking it was likely that no one in the room noticed she wasn't actually moving her feet at all, but propelling herself forward with her powers. Using her legs hurt enough already, too much to try to move, or even move quickly.

'Mkay,gonna stop here and wait for more feedback, as stated at the end of the last chapter before I continue. I may incorporate certain ideas. I may not, but it's always good to know them.


	15. Chapter 15

No Trucks CLEARANCE 10 FEET

Allison read the words and looked around. Clearly she was in the lot of a gas station. There were red and white coverings on the pumps and bare empty trees surrounding the bare empty street. From the looks of things, it was a slow, barren town. Hardly any traffic on the street at all.

How'd I end up here? She wondered.

She glanced around. No Bo. No sign of her, or her keepers anywhere. Allison was slightly glad not to see that Milton person. She didn't trust him. How could she be sure he wouldn't take Bo right back to the people who hurt her in the first place? What if he was still in league with them? Safety said this possibility couldn't be ignored.

"And the monsters come at night," she whispered. Even though it was still daylight here.

The wind whipped at her skirt as she turned around in place, scanning the area. Usually she didn't wear skirts, finding them inconvenient and annoyingly girlish, not to mention impossible to climb trees in, but trying to get into jeans that morning had proved too painful, and the elastic waist of a skirt proved more physically preferable.

This place was still ten times better than being in school.

"Bo?" She called out into the air, even though she saw no one.

Then Allison saw a man with black hair running from a motorcycle parked at one of the side pumps, and into the gas station market.

She was starting to regret not bringing something warm to wear, realizing it was harder than usual to keep warm when a hand grabbed her roughly by the shoulder.

Allison screamed and spun around.

Her grey eyes took in what she considered to be a fat old guy, with a blue shirt and almost no hair on his head.

"You Bo?" The man asked.

She was about to snap back, "Why would I just call for myself?" When something in her brain started to go off like an alarm. Danger, Danger, this idiot is dangerous.

So instead she answered as she backed away, "You're a stranger."

"Hey, Zepeda, is this the girl?"

The man with black hair was now running out of the gas station with a key, and jumping onto the motorcycle.

"No, you idiot!" He answered, starting the engine. Allison's eyes went wide and her mouth opened when she saw him pull out a gun.

Quickly and silently, Allison backed away from then man who'd grabbed her and watched as the other man sped away on the motorcycle.

"Wait for me," he yelled back at the fat man, who was already walking quickly toward a silver SUV.

That's when Allison saw that the fat man had a gun, too.

_Better get out of here._

Fear and exhaustion caused her to begin shaking. She considered going into the safety of the gas station store, but heard the commotion of panic much commotion.

_Maybe they robbed the place._

Getting out of sight was still a good idea. She continued to walk backward along the walls of the store, keeping her eyes on the man that was left behind, until she was around the corner of the building and out of sight. Finally she sunk to the ground, leaning back against the brick wall for support.

She tried to ignore the cold feeling of the asphalt on her butt and legs, the whipping of her skirt against her legs, and her hair into her face, and tried to focus on Bo instead. After all, she hadn't just come here to get away from the jerks in her class.

_Bo where are you?_

_Where are you?_

Allison closed her eyes, almost too exhausted to focus. She remembered the fear and the pain she'd felt from Bo, the panic. And then her sending herself here to the gas station. She thought about the two men.

Her exhaustion must have been making her brain slower than usual as it took her some minutes to connect the dots. One or both of these men had shot Bo.

Oh, she shook her head ruefully, I have to kill them. It wasn't a thought of regret. She tried to stand up, but fell back to the hard cement beneath her.

...

... ;;;

"The monster gets us all." Bo whispered the words of warning, before losing consciousness.

She was surprised to hear Milton, Sara and Carl's voice calling to her, but more surprised when the voices stopped and she saw no one. Her concern lessened with the sense of joy she felt at being back in her bedroom, back in her castle. A deep sense of peace filled her and she sighed a contented sigh. This was her favorite place to be. Her happy place, her safe place.

"Milton?" She called, looking around the room again. After all, this was a joy that needed to be shared.

"Milton?"

_"Bo? Bo, where are you? Bo? I can't find you! Can you hear me? Listen! Bo, tell me where you are!"_

Bo's brown eyes widened in surprise as she recognized Allison's voice. She answered back the way Allison had shown her.

_"Allison where are you?"_

_"I'm lost!"_ Bo heard the panic in her friend's voice.

_"I'm at a gas station! I thought you were here, but you're not! Now I don't know where to go."_

In her mind Bo saw the gas station they'd just left, and knew that's where Allison was.

_"I was there,"_ she answered. _"But I'm back home now."_

_"Where?"_

Bo used all her strength to show Allison where home was.

Allison tried to focus her energy on the location, wondering if maybe she should just try to walk there.

_"I'm so tired, Bo. I don't know if I can."_ SHe thought for a minute. _"Make a noise or something, something I can follow until I get there."_

_"I thought you were good at this sort of thing,"_ she heard Bo's answer.

"So did I."

Hopefully the second part of this chapter will be up soon. Having major computer problems.


	16. Chapter 16

Welcome to a really, really long chapter. Also trigger warning for slight details of sexual violence.

...

"Oh no, whoever it is, you're gonna make the call, right now. If you can get help you're damn well gonna get it."

"All right. But not here. They will trace this phone."

"Go, I'll secure the farm. We have no other option."

"Hey,Bo?"

"Bo, where are you?"

Channing, Tate, and Winter all froze for a moment at the unexpected new voice in the house.

"Who's that?" From Bo's room, Carl's voice called out. Recognizing the voice, but not having the luxury of being either confused or surprised, William Tate walked back into Bo's room, then headed for the stairs. Not knowing this wasn't some member of Orchestra, Carl followed after him.

Allison backed into the small couch behind her as unfamiliar, most likely male footsteps sounded coming down steps. She grabbed onto the couch back, determined this time to defend herself. It was clear why Bo liked this place it was like some perfect movie-cute cottage farm house thing. But, she wasn't going to take any chances.

Allison held her breath and steeled her body, ready for attack, or to be attacked.

When she saw Bo's dad, her muscles relaxed so suddenly, she almost fell down. Then she saw an unfamiliar, yet harmless looking man with a beard standing behind Tate and tensed again, just in case.

The man with the beard smiled at her.

"Who are you?"

Tate answered for her. "It's Bo, squared."

"I should have known," her voice sounded far away, "I should have been able to stop them. I should have stopped them."

Tate grimaced, recognizing the feeling of guilt. "It's okay," he answered, "it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have know what they were going to do to her."

She felt her eyes rolling back into her head and her body seeming to float slowly backwards.

Allison was unconscious by the time she hit the floor.

"Sara!" Carl called out as Tate rushed to Allison's prone body. The fall had pushed her skirt up enough that pitch black bruises were visible on her legs.

"Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to you?"

He held the back of Allison's head in one hand, noticing her head felt like a million tingly sparks.

For a moment her eyes fluttered opened. The kid seemed to look around at nothing, then announced, "Don't trust people, Tate. People are like snakes."

Tate considered the possibility that the kid was insane, but to be polite he nodded and answered, "Yeah, I know."

"Kid, why did you come all the way out here?"

"Bo," she whispered.

Allison's eyes closed again, and Tate felt the girl's tiny body become like dead weight in his arms.

"Who's this?" Sara asked as she knelt next to Tate.

"This is one of Bo's friends," Tate answered.

Sara put a hand to Allison's forehead. "Does she have the same powers as Bo?"

"Pretty much."

Sara needed only seconds to take the girl's pulse, announcing, "Her pulse is weak, and a slight fever, just like Bo."

Tate nodded her head toward Allison's legs. "But what about these bruises?"

Sara gently pushed up Allison's skirt for a look at her legs. "Looks like she's been attacked."

"What do we do with her?"

"Bring her upstairs with Bo, for now. I can examine her better up there. And who knows? If these two are friends they might be able to help each other."

With a curt nod, Tate picked Allison up, cradling her in both arms, and took her upstairs, both Sara and Carl trailing behind him.

His eyes met Winter's as he placed Allison on the bed next to Bo.

"This doesn't mean the plan is off," he announced. Both Channing and Winter moved closer to Allison.

"Carl," Sara kept her voice soft, "can you bring me my kit?"

"What's wrong with her?" Milton's question echoed Tate's.

Channing looked at the bruises on Allison's thighs and announced in a flat, emotionless tone, "Rape."

Both Tate and Winter looked at each other and reflexively took a step backward.

"Sara," Milton kept his voice low as well, "will she need to be taken to a hospital?"

No one wanted to admit that the desire to not take this kid to the hospital was on their minds.

"She might, if there's enough internal damage." Sara said the words as she drapped a white sheet.

Allison moaned, and reached out until she felt Bo next to her. She stilled then.

"Bo."

Bo appeared before her in the now empty bedroom.

"Allison!" Bo ran to her and embraced her in a hug. "I was worried you wouldn't get here."

Allison smiled. "Well, I did."

"I'm glad. Now we can have some fun. But, you have to be careful. There's a monster in the fireplace."

Allison stared at her darkly, not amused. "There's no monster in the fireplace."

"Yes," Bo's eyes were sad, "there is."

The tousle-haired blonde rolled her eyes, then turned her back on Bo, walking towards the window instead of her.

"You're on crack," Allison's voice was cold, uncaring, and clearly not wanting to indulge in any imaginary or psychotic play.

"You're mean." Bo grabbed a small stuffed bear from the shelf next to her and with perfect aim threw it at the back of Allison's head-hard.

"Ow!" With ease that wouldn't be possible outside of this reality, Allison bent down and grabbed the bear and threw it with equal strength back at Bo.

"Well, you're-" Allison's mouth puckered up as she tried to think of another insult. She sighed in aggravation when none came immediately to mind.

"I must be more tired than I thought."

Allison grabbed one of the many stuffed animals from the table by the window and sat down on the bed, bored with this.

"Do you have any idea how lucky you are to live like this?"

"I do now," she admitted.

"It must be nice having people who actually want you around- ow!"

Bo looked quickly at Allison, whose face was now contorted in pain, hands clutching her groin as if it might fall off.

"What's wrong?"

"They're hurting me!" She cried.

"Who's hurting you?" Bo ran to Allison and knelt at her side, eyes looking up pleading with Allison to answer.

"Your people!" She cried. "The people in your house."

Bo shook her head. "They wouldn't hurt you," she assured her, all facial features showing sincerity.

Tears were running down Allison's face. "That's like you saying there's a monster in the fireplace!"

"There IS a monster in the fireplace!"

"And they ARE hurting me!" She retorted.

_"The pain must be bringing her around."_

Both Bo and Allison heard Milton Winter's voice.

"I don't trust him either," Allison reminded Bo.

"You know it wouldn't hurt you to trust someone some times."

"Trust me, it does hurt to trust people- a lot!"

Searing pain went through her body and Allison saw a woman she vaguely recognized standing over her. Allison cried out, and tried to move away from the pain, but the woman's hands held her in place.

"Hey, you're back in the land of the living," she did Tate as he smiled at her from across the room.

She glared at him. "Hell you mean."

Tate chuckled at the joke, knowing she meant "living hell".

She yelled in pain and tried to turn away, but the woman with black hair was still holding her in place.

"Let me go!"

Channing, she remembered. Her name is Channing.

"It'll be over soon."

Allison realized the new voice was coming from somewhere near her, but she couldn't see anything past her two bony knees sticking up in front of her.

Then Allison screamed in pain, at the same time Bo whimpered in pain like a hurt animal.

"It must be affecting her too," Channing spoke.

"I'm sorry sweetheart," Sara's voice was gentle, "this is going to hurt, but soon it will stop."

Allison's body began to shake, whether from shock, pain, or exhaustion it was hard to tell. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and while it was clear she was trying to hold back, eventually she was sobbing.

_"Don't hurt her,"_ she heard Bo's voice in her head, though when she glanced over, Bo was still unconscious. Bo's tone conveyed the truth that she would hurt Allison, if Allison hurt her friends.

_"They don't want to hurt you,"_ she continued, _"they have to, to help you."_

"Some help they are," she gasped through her sobs.

"Are you talking to her? Is Bo talking to you?" Milton asked. Allison ignored him, figuring he shouldn't be bothering her now at a time like this and why the hell were there so many men in the room?

She looked at all three of them huddled together in the corner far opposite her as if they were insane. "Get out!" She demanded.

Tate held up both hands, and moved to do as ordered, but not before saying, "Didn't I say that? I told you."

There was no pain for a while and Sara asked, "Do you feel this?"

"Feel what?" Allison asked her.

A few more moments of unaggravated pain and Sara spoke again.

"All done."

All Allison was aware of was that the searing pain stopped, and that Channing released her. Instantly, Allison turned towards Bo and screwed herself up in a fetal position.

"Carl,"

Carefully, Carl made his way back into the room.

"I'm going to give you a list of things this little girl is going to need. The internal tears are mostly superficial, and will heal on their own, I sewed up the only external tear. It's too late for a rape kit to be effective, but if you go to the nurses' station and give them my note they'll be able to get you the other things she'll need."

She made quick work of writing and in seconds signed and tore the sheet of paper off the pad of paper and handed it to Carl.

Tate was glancing in the room, hearing exactly what was wrong with Allison. Granted, he didn't quite understand it, but seeing Channing, who was one strong bitch in his mind, close her eyes and wince in pain pushing her legs together and shielding her groin, he had a feeling it was really bad.

"Are we allowed back in the room?" Winter's question.

"I don't see why not," Sara answered as she pulled a vial and syringe out of her bag.

Milton and Tate stepped back into the room.

"What's that?"

"Morphine," Sara answered. With deft motions she disinfected a spot on Allison's thigh and injected the meds.

They heard a car engine outside as Carl headed off to Sara's workplace. Tate glanced after him, then pointedly at Winter.

"Owww," Allison moaned, putting a hand on her leg. "It's burning my skin!"

"Morphine hurts," Channing answered.

"Kid," Tate addressed Allison, whose eyelids were beginning to droop, "Winter and me are going to go get help for Bo."

Blinking heavily Allison looked over at her friend sleeping beside her. "Why?"

"Because she needs help."

Allison shook her head. "No she doesn't. She just thinks there's monsters in the fire" she yawned loudly, "place," she finished.

She seemed to look questions at Tate, who finally answered, "You're safe here, kid, just go to sleep."

With a wary look, she glanced all around again, then seeming to decide that she had no choice and was too exhausted, she lay back on the bed, pulling covers over herself. Then, in a seeming moment of protection, she threw one arm around Bo's sleeping form.

Tate nodded to Winter. "Let's go."


	17. Chapter 17

Allison stirred out of sleep, tried to roll over then gave a muffled cry of pain and gave up any further effort.

"Food."

Allison's pale face was flushed, but only in the places where it wasn't ghostly white; which,as time went by became less and less places.

Channing looked at her. "What?" If at least one of the two was conscious she figured it was a good idea to keep her that way. Since Allison was conscious at least part of the time,it was possible Allison didn't have the degrade. But her seeming to manifest most of the symptoms was worrying.

"I need food," she whispered barely able to get the words out, too tired to open her eyes.

"It took a lot of her energy to get here," Channing answered, really only speaking to Sara. For a brief moment Channing considered finding out what orphanage Allison resided at, in order to notify them of her safety. However now definitely didn't seem like a good time.

"You," Allison's words were soft but authoratative, "get me food."

Channing nodded. "I can get you something." Channing was making her way to the door, leaving Sara in charge when she heard Allison speak again, clearly addressing her.

"And," she called out, "kill him."

"What?" Channing hissed, having expected a demand for more or different food.

"Kill him," Allison's chest heaved at the effort it took to stay awake. "You should kill him," she clarified lying flat on the bed, yellow curls spread out around her on the flowered pillow like sun rays. "I'd kill him," she gasped, "but I'm too tired." she breathed the last words and fell back into sleep.

Sara looked to Channing, concerned. "I thought she was like Bo."

Channing stopped where she was, framed by the garish pink of the doorway. "She is. If by like you mean the opposite of Bo. Allison is everything that Bo isn't." Then she turned and headed down the hall to the stairs.

Downstairs, Channing saw a box of crackers sitting on the cupboard shelf in the old farm kitchen. An old blue bowl was sitting on the counter. Channing grabbed it,then dumped a handful of crackers into the bowl. Then grabbing a small clear glass from the cupboard as well, she filled it with water, grabbed the bowl and marched back upstairs with both.

Back in the innocent girly world of Bo, Channing sat down on the bed with the items she'd retrieved. Bo was motionless, cheeks unflushed, looking for all the world as if she were only asleep.

Feeling no need to be maternal with Allison, Channing shook Allison to wake her. "Here, it's food."

Allison took a few crackers from the bowl Channing was holding. Then Channing held a glass of water to her lips. Allison drank, looking at Sara she did so. The woman was crushing up pills into a canister of applesauce. Allison swallowed down another gulp of water then grimaced.

"How's that?" Channing asked, pushing a long strand of hair behind her ear.

Allison sighed. "Better," she whispered. She wanted to go back to sleep. Slowly and carefully she lowered herself back down onto the bed. She noticed she was wearing a nightshirt. While she was wondering how that had happened, Allison suddenly realized that she didn't want to sleep as much as she wanted to throw up.

_Oh no._

She wasn't able to give any verbal warning before she began vomiting directly into the now empty bowl Channing still held in front of her.

"Oh, disgusting!" Channing cried, helpless to do anything but hold the bowl and try to keep the barf from landing on her.

Sara ran to grab an empty pin plastic bin from Bo's closet. Still running she thrust the canister under Allison's chin as she continued vomiting up everything until all she could do was dry heave.

"Good thing I haven't given you any oral meds yet," Sara smiled.

Allison just stared at her blankly, too ill feeling to comprehend, and more concerned with the possibility of throwing up again.

Assuming Sara the nurse would take care of things, Channing wasted no time in fleeing back to the kitchen, specifically to the sink.

Just as she was walking into the kitchen she saw Carl standing by the stove with a bag stuffed full of what Channing guessed had to be medical supplies Sara had asked for.

While she was washing up, Carl started to say some things Channing didn't appreciate. Then, just to be away from him, Channing dried her hands and headed right back upstairs.

"Where else were we supposed to take her?" She grumbled making swift work on the old wooden steps.

Back in Bo's room,with nothing to do, Channing sat down on the bed next to Bo. Allison was cleaned up,and sleeping.

Carl dropped the bag on the bed and left the room. Sara immediately retrieved two rolls of thick acebandages, several bottles of pills, as well as vials and syringes.

Prophylactic measures, Channing thought seeing them. Things to help prevent STDs and pregnancy. It wasn't clear how old Allison was,so taking every precaution seemed prudent.

A half hour later Sara this time, Channing having announced, "I'm not taking any chances", got Allison to eat something. After it seemed to stay put, Sara went back to her meds.

Sara crushed a few pills into applesauce,

_I feel sorry for whoever's stupid enough to eat that._ They'd tried to make her take asprin once at the home mixed in with applesauce. It was the most disgusting thing she'd ever tasted.

and had Allison choke the mass down. Then she gave her three shots in her arm. Whether it was the morphine still working or not, Allison didn't make a sound. She simply fell back into feverish sleep.

A hand was put to her forehead, and a thermometer in her ear.

"A hundred and five."

"But she didn't have that high of a fever before."

Sara sanatized the thermometer again and checked Bo.

"One hundred and three."

"How are they both sick at the same time?"

"Allison's sick because she's having a physical response to her attack. Bo, I'm not sure."

The sound of a shotgun being cocked stopped any further conversation.

_"What's going on?"_

_Allison and Bo both stood in Bo's bedroom, which was currently unoccupied, save the two of them. "That guy has a gun pointed at your friend,Channing."_

_"What?"_

_"See, I told you! You can't trust people. And so much for your people not hurting people." _

_"Why's he doing that?"_

_"Maybe you should wake up and see for yourself." _

_Bo frowned and looked slightly ashamed. "I can't," she admitted. _

_"Well, looks like you're gonna miss the fun." _

With more effort than she thought it would take, Allison pulled herself out. Channing was gone, and the man with the beard was hugging the Sara woman.

"Right idea," her words were barely above a whisper, "wrong person." She hoped the man realized she meant shooting someone dead, not hugging someone.

"What?"

So much for that hope. "If you want to shoot someone, shoot the guy in the barn."

It pained her how slow all these people were. People who had no problem killing Bo. Oh no, don't bother to kill them first. Just let them catch her? What the hell are these people thinking? If you kill them all you'll have a lot less to worry about- like them killing you.

When Tate and Winter arrived with meds for Bo, Allison was shoving at Bo, the sheets, anything to get the hot feeling away from her.

"Other than the fever, Bo isn't showing any symptoms of illness, or even symptoms of fever. Allison had a high fever for a while, now it's starting to go down."

"Wake up, stupid!" Allison yelled in a muffled, half asleep voice,"You're making me feel like shit!"

Tate laughed aloud at the unexpected language.

Channing couldn't help smiling as she reminded Sara, "Like I said, she's like Bo because she's the opposite of Bo."

"Well," Tate interrupted, "in case today's evidence hasn't pointed it out, she's had a hell life living in an orphange. While Bo's only been around people who wanted her, even if they want to use her, Allison has never had anyone that wanted her- unless, in all likelyhood they've wanted to hurt her."

_"Hey, can you wake up yet?"_

_Bo shook her head. _

_"So, what's happening when I'm not here? What do you do?"_

_Bo shrugged. "I remember stuff that happened in the past." _

_"Bad stuff?"_

_"Sort of." _

_"That's funny, I wouldn't think bad things happened to someone like you." _

_"They didn't,"she admitted, "not until I had to leave Orchestra." _

_"I knew music was a waste of time." Allison grabbed a post on the bed and swung around it._

_"Not that kind of Orchestra," Bo rolled her eyes. "I know you know what I mean." _

_Allison smiled like a cheshire cat in answer, then asked, "So do you feel sick?"_

_"No." Bo shook her head, making her braid bob back and forth. _

_"Well your body's sick," Allison informed her condescendingly. "You have a super high fever and you could die or something." _

_"I don't feel sick," she repeated._

_"Well I do." _

"I do feel sick. So you better stop it, or wake up."

Winter looked at Allison talking in her sleep, as he opened the syringe container. "Can you talk to Bo? Communicate with her?"

Allison just moaned in discomfort and turned on her side away from him.

"Zoey said that it would only bring her to the surface. Whatever the hell that means." Bo's dad was talking now.

"She should regain enough consciousness to where she can hear and feel us."If we can reach her, contact her." Allison recognized the voice as the man she'd thrown through a building.

"We're supposed to just ask her to come back?"

"Nothing's happening. Bo's dad again.

"Give it time."

"Winter, we need to bring her to Orchestra."

"We will not bring her to orchestra!"

The shout from Winter made Allison startle and wake up. That surprised her, as she'd thought she was awake already.

"She awake yet?" She asked, meaning Bo.

Channing was standing next to her. "No honey."

Channing put a hand to Allison's head. "Her fever's going down," she announced.

Sara nodded to Bo. "Which means Bo's is too."

Allison's eyes suddenly lit up as a revelation hit her. Her excitement pushing away her exhaustion, Allison grinned and quickly tried to sit up.

"Ow!" She yelled, throwing a hand over her lower abdomen.

Sara gave her a pained smile. "You're gonna need to stay lying down for a few days, and nothing other than walking for at least a month."

Allison sighed heavily, and her body looked like a deflating balloon.

Not giving up, she looked at Channing. "Turn me over." She ordered. Whether the girl was rude, or too rushed to bother it didn't matter.

"Right now she's the closest thing we have to Bo," Channing justified her obedience as she carefully rolled Allison over to face Bo.

Allison looked at Tate.

"Roll her over."

Not sure where the kid was going with this, but clearly seeing some idea in her head, Tate did as requested.

Once Bo was facing her, Allison seemed to need to rest, to gather her strength for something.

Then, like lightning , Allison's hand flashed out and she slapped Bo hard across the face.

"Wake up!" She yelled joyously, grinning from ear to ear.

Eager as a puppy Allison awaited Bo's joining her in the real world.

When she didn't do so, Allison frowned, slapped her again, then shook her.

"Hey, wake up!" Now, she seemed worried.

"That's enough of that," Tate put a hand out before Allison could hit Bo again.

Genuine confusion showed on the blonde's face. "I don't get it. That's supposed to work."

Tate chuckled, understanding. "I think that's only in movies."

Allison let out a heavy, deflating sigh again as she lay back down. "That's all I can do. She can't wake up."

_"What's going on now?"_

_"Didn't you feel that?"_

_"Feel what?"_

_"I slapped you in the face!"_

_Bo's mouth dropped open in surprise._

_"You did?"_

_"Yeah, I did,' Allison gloated. "Twice!"_

_"And I didn't wake up."_

_"Obviously not."_

_"They gave you some medicine and Milton yelled really loud._

_Bo's brown eyes widened like saucers at this news. "Milton never yells."_

_"If it helps, he wasn't yelling at you." Allison yawned._

_"I have to go to sleep for real now. Wake up soon."_

_Bo bobbed her head in easy agreement. "I'll try," she answered._

If you got this far, good job! It's really hard to type on here for some reason. I'll type something and in the middle of a word the cursor will go up to the top of the page and finish typing there. So it takes me three times as long to type anything. Next chapter (because I'm done with typing about Bang N' Blame) will be about...actually, I don't know. But in it will be somethings that for space I couldn't type here.


	18. Chapter 18

Apologies guys for the extreme lack of detail. Trying to write fast to catch up with episodes. And no worries, what I left out of the last chapter was partly because I was exhausted and ready for all that to be over- the other part is because the rest of what happened in the episode will be spoken of, in great detail, in future chapters. :) Also for anyone who can't see the page breaks or when I italicize things I'm really sorry. Obviously I can't do anything about it. I've tried. And tried. And tried. I think it's fine because it looks normal in here, but then it publishes differently. So I try to fix it and reload it and it still doesn't work. Any ideas anyone?

This chapter is part of a 'series' of responses to several PMs I've gotten from different readers, although they all said or requested the same thing.

Another awesome reader provided me with "Reactive Attachment Disorder" and really described why my description of Allison's behavior RAD aside, would be completely correct for someone with a similar history. Thank you for that!

Also I have given the group 'more time' in one place because I hate them having to run around every single day. :) I wanted to let our favorite people rest a while.

Story-

"I'm an idiot," Tate had a hand to his forehead.

"No one's doubting that," Channing smirked and looked evenly at him.

He glared at her. "I mean I thought she was talking about Bo, not being able to stop them from shooting her. But she said them. She meant she couldn't stop all those men from raping her."

Channing looked as if she might vomit and turned away.

"It suggests that Miss Allison may not be able to completely control her abilities."

"Or," Tate contradicted, "maybe she was just too terrified."

"As I said."

"Wow," Tate took a few paces around Milton, "Mr. Non-Violence blaming a kid for being gang-banged."

"Mister Tate!"

"Hey, that's what it's called. Believe me, in prison I learned a hellofalot about animals like that. About what they do to girls. They are not sorry about it,either."

Channing had to agree. "Therapists say they'd rather work at rehabilitating murderers because they actually have a decent chance of not repeating the same offense. But they know it's a hopeless cause to rehab a rapist or child predator, because those people can not change. Once they get out, they are back on the prowl."

Tate looked at Winter and nodded. "She's right you know."

Disgust wore Milton's face like a mask. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Let's change the topic, shall we?"

"Has she had enough time to rest?" Channing's question.

"Which one?" Tate raised an eyebrow, causing his shaved hairline to receed slightly.

"Allison." Channing blinked once and looked at Winter before continuing. "Physically she's able to walk a little bit."

"Yeah," Tate scoffed, "to the bathroom and back."

"According to Sara, that's loads better than she was."

Channing knew this because five days after their unfortunate reunion at the farm, she'd gone back to pick up Allison, Sara having suggested that Allison stay behind the others went to their next location. Winter was afraid that Orchestra would come back to the farm, and they might not be looking for Bo this time around, and instructed Channing to 'fetch' her.

_"Sepeda saw her," he said. "And he saw her at the gas station too, if he recalls that. He may well be able to put two and two together."_

_"You never should have let him get away," Tate scowled._

_"Look who's talking?" Channing was quick to jump on Tate's error. "From the man who was going to let Bo be taken right to Orchestra!"_

_When she'd gotten back to the farm Sara told her that Allison would need to be carried for distances longer than a few feet for the next day or so. Channing was surprised to hear that, until Sara explained that the adrenaline in her system from Bo had probably helped mask the state of her injuries. That, plus denial and shock._

_Sara'd been forced to keep the girl on a liquid diet, heavily drugged, with both legs firmly tied together at the knee and middle thigh, nearly glued together to help the damaged tissues heal, as well her her torn thigh muscles. This necessary healing tool of immobility was in addition to wrapping the girl's legs in ace bandages from the knee up._

_Channing had continued to stare at Sara in wide-eyed shock as she took in just how injured Allison was from her recent rape. And from what Sara saw in her exam, repeated rapes._

_"I've given her all her doses of HIV cocktail, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas, plus her Hep B shot."_

_"And the morning after pill." Channing stated this hoping it was true, just in case._

_Sara simply nodded._

_With a verbal list of signs to look out for, as well as a laundry list of common trauma and PTSD responses, Channing went upstairs to retrieve Allison._

_Because Allison was slighter of build than Bo, she was also lighter to carry. Allison made no objection, but she was still heavily medicated. Channing carried her in both arms to the waiting car, and placed her lying down in the back seat, buckling both seat belts around her, even though that was illegal._

_"Thanks for your help," she nodded to both Carl and Sara before she drove away._

_I hope Milton appreciates how much I do for him. Being around the two people she'd tried to kill wasn't exactly her idea of a good time._

"Has she recovered mentally?"

Channing nodded. "For essentials, yes. But don't forget she's human, Milton. This little girl has been extremely physically, emotionally, and spiritually traumatized, altered for life. There's no telling how this emotional trauma will impact her."

"Can we start training her?"

"You're kidding me," Tate's voice raised in shock, "we're not sending her back?"

"If Dr. Skouras has his telekenetic search perameter in operation, it's only a matter of time until he finds her. And as you said once Mr. Tate, who better for Orchestra to manipulate than a girl who's already angry with the world and wants and needs to hurt others?"

"So we treat her like a lab rat, instead of Orchestra doing it."

"Not funny, Mister Tate."

Tate looked at Winter the way that Bo often looked at him. "Wasn't supposed to be." Then he rolled his eyes and looked away.

"She did offer to go back, Milton," Channing spoke from the seat she'd taken, giving Winter an out if he regretted this decision. "Before she fell asleep last night she seemed actually happy. She sighed and said, "I'm safe now." "Then when she saw me looking at her she said, "I can go back now if you want. It's no big deal, they'll just think I ran away- again."

"Then she fell asleep."

"Yeah," Tate nodded, recalling just what had made last night memorable. "the first time since she got here she hasn't woken up screaming."

Winter turned to Tate. "You said orphanages like hers are a living hell."

Tate ducked his head as a nod. "She said it. And Bo said that really bad things happen to her there, and at that school she goes to."

"So, we'd be doing her a favor by keeping her here," Channing smiled.

Tate wasn't so easily fooled. "Not to mention she'd be an added advantage in protecting Bo."

Winter inclined his head to him. "There is that."

Tate threw up his hands and sat down on a nearby table top. "Well, since we're keeping her like some puppy, at least we don't have to worry about her being an Amber girl. Orphanages lose kids all the time, the ones that run away. They usually don't even bother to look for them."

"At least she's easy to get along with," he'd give Allison that.

"She's not nearly as annoying as Bo is sometimes, and she at least knows to shut up sometimes."

Milton Winter suppressed a laugh, but couldn't keep the amusement from his eyes. "Yes, Mister Tate, the two of you certainly seem as though you'd get along quite well."

Tate knew that wasn't meant as a compliment so he scowled at Winter. But really? It was true. He understood Allison and her actions and reasoning completely. It was Bo, his own daughter that sadly seemed like a foreigner in his land.

-Done for now. Can't wait for the next chapter, it's gonna be so cute! Unless the chapter gets a mind of it's own and goes in some weird direction I'm not anticipating. Hate it when stories do that. Hurry up n' review so I know everyone's caught up, and I'll try to finish this next one up. Oh, I can't wait, it's so cute! Okay, okay. I'm done. Finished. No more hinting.


	19. Chapter 19

Another super quick one. I forgot about this necessary part of the story while working on the next chapter, so I had to back up and get this done.

The constant whispering told Tate that his daughter and her new best friend were awake.

With a sigh, he headed towards the curtained off area of the floor that was 'their room'. He had no idea how Winter did it, but where ever they ended up, and however fast they had to move there were always things like blankets and room like things. This time they were on the second floor of what was probably some old office complex, or war time factory, thick cement block walls painted blue and thick cement pillars were the only things that decorated the space. Otherwise it was one big empty spot. But for the old curtains that sectioned off each person's area.

"Hey, so ...your friend gets to stay here with us."

He watched Allison for expression. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened to a perfect 'o' as Bo jumped up and knelt on her knees, facing him.

"Are you serious?"

Tate nodded.

Allison bit her lower lip and looked cautiously at him. "For how long?" She asked, not sure if this great thing were really real.

"Forever."

Allison screamed with joy, imagining a fairy tale life with no mean orphanage kids, or adults, and no mean school kids. then yelled in pain, and clutching her abdomen lay back down shaking with pain.

"What's wrong?" Bo was at her friend's side in an instant, brown eyes lined with worry.

"She moved too fast," Tate provided the answer. "Might have torn some muscles too."

"Channing!" Bo's voice rose to a half-frantic yell.

Channing was the keeper and distributor of Allison's medication, including pain meds.

As Channing appeared Bo announced, "She needs more morphine. She made a mistake and moved too fast."

Channing turned on her heel to fetch her mini-med kit, and was back with a needle and morphine vial almost instantly.

Bo watched the needle go into Allison's skin, watched the plunger be pulled back, and then out of Allison's arm. After a few moments Allison's face lost some of it's pained look.

"Hey, I've got an idea!"

Allison looked sideways at her. "What?" She asked, her voice void of any excitement or anticipation.

"You can fix yourself!"

"What?"

"You know, like you fixed the church! You said fixing stuff that's alive is easy. You're alive, so why don't you fix yourself?"

Allison was dumbfounded. "I never thought of that. I've never tried to, before."

"So try it."

"I dunno. What if I mess up?"

"That's a good point. You could end up doing god-knows-what to yourself," Tate agreed.

Bo looked up at Channing for her input. CHanning shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"Wait a minute Miss Allison." Winter's voice carried from the other side of the room, having heard the high pitched conversation easily.

"But it would make her better," Bo insisted as Winter walked towards them.

"We don't know that sweetheart," he shook his head at her. "It could make her worse. And at least we know if we do nothing, her body will heal on its own."

"But that's months away," Allison moaned, pained by the very thought, and now starting to like this idea better.

"Here!" Allison snatched the syringe from Channing and scrapped it across the back of Allison's hand.

"Ow!" Allison yelled and pulled her hand back, a small bit of blood oozing from the cut.

Then Allison remembered the work she'd done with plants and trees. This would be no different. But just to be on the safe side, Allison put the fingers of her other hand over the small scrape and closed her eyes.

Tate, Bo, Channing and Winter all leaned in expectantly.

Sure enough as they watched Allison's hand, the blood stopped flowing and the tiny scrape shrank until it was gone.

Allison looked over at Winter.

When he said nothing, Bo encouraged her. "Try a small area first."

Thinking carefully, and aware of the eyes upon her, Allison put gently pushed her golden curls aside from her neck and placed hand to the back of her neck, where a large bruise of a hand was formed. That's what she wanted to get rid of first. The signs of their hands on her body.

This work went faster. It looked as if Allison putting her hand on the yellow brown bruise made the color jump from the skin.

"Wow." Bo stared in admiration.

Winter smiled down at them. "Looks like it's okay."

The trio of adults stood still until Allison looked indignantly at them.

"A little privacy?"

She stared at them until they left the vacinity.

Then when they were alone, Allison began her work. First the bruises on her arms. First the pain went away, then the color. Then she moved onto the area that was the most important, her thigh muscles.

Lifting her yellow nightshirt exposed a swath of skin that was milk white, and then another that was the blackest of black. Allison'd never seen a bruise quite like anything she had now. She remembered Bo's friend Sara told her that she'd almost ripped her gracilis and aductor muscles in half.

She'd been quick to tell the Sara woman that she didn't do anything.

Bo let out a gasp of horror.

"YOu look like your legs are burned. They're totally black!"

Allison nodded.

"And they really, really hurt," Bo whispered.

Allison nodded again.

Bo's face was a web-work of both sympathy, sorrow and pain. Her eyes were wide and wet with tears.

Allison put a hand to her left thigh. The bruise covered the entire length of her thigh, from groin down to kneecap, and was larger in width than her own hand, with the fingers spread out. Even the skin on her stomach, above the line of her panties, was colored with a bruise.

"What did they do to you?" Bo whispered, horror-stricken, this being the first time she'd actually seen Allison's major injuries.

Allison shrugged as if she didn't care. "All they did was rape me."


	20. Chapter 20

Hey guys! I was having a fit over this story because what I wanted to happen wouldn't fit in with the time frame, even though it was just a little thing. And I finally realized if I just added an extra day before the "Together" episode it'd be fine. So, this takes place the day before the Together episode, when they are all in that big old factory building or whatever it is.

"Alpha, Beta, Gamma- no, Gamma's the upside down 'l' shape!"

Milton Winter's heard Allison Cramer's voice, and paused in surprise. Not because he was hearing the other girl's voice, but because of what she was saying. He quickened his pace over to the 'work room' as the girls had called it. A space that could and did alternate between being a craft table, a school desk and a fort.

"Theta- no, I mean Delta! Yeah, the triangle shape. At least you know triangles," he heard her laugh, "I was a little worried there."

"Well, we don't all get to go to school."

"I know!" Allison crowed with joy. "Now I don't have to either."

Milton stood over the table, looking down in shock.

"Miss Bo, what are you girls doing this morning?" He smiled.

Bo's bright smile shone up at him and her eyes sparkled as she answered, "Allison's teaching me the alphabet!"

Both girls laughed.

"Not really the alphabet," she confessed.

"It is too the alphabet," Allison was quick to contradict her.

"But not the American one."

Winter chuckled, "No, not quite." He looked in open admiration and wonder at the sheets of paper on the tabletop.

"Miss Channing!" Milton called across the room.

"Miss Channing, come look at this!"

William Tate, with nothing else to do, came as well, but Channing reached Milton in seconds.

He smiled at her and handed her one of the papers on the tabletop.

"Have a look at this, Miss Channing," he invited.

Channing looked at the paper.

"Who did this?" She exclaimed. When no one answered her question she asked more.

"Is that Arabic? That's Russian! That's Greek, and Latin, and," she turned the paper over, "holy crap the kid's got Mandarin and Korean on here too!"

"Do you know all these languages?" Winter asked, looking at Allison.

"Of course not," she laughed, "I only started learning those languages yesterday, mostly just their alphabets." She looked a little dissappointed. "I was going to learn all those languages at the same time, but it took over three hours straight just to learn the Russian alphabet- and I keep messing up the end so I haven't really learned it yet either. At this point I think I'll be lucky if I manage to learn all these alphabets."

"She knows French," Bo gushed. "And Spanish too! And Portugese!"

Allison was quick to correct her. "I just know their alphabet."

This seemed to be a heavy endorsement for school for Bo, and everyone knew it.

Channing looked at Allison. Her thick curls had been submitted into a tight braid that was as thick as rope. Stray curls framed her forehead and ringed around her ears and the base of her neck.

"Combien des persons sont ici, dans cet salle?" She asked.

"No me insulte." Allison answered, looking as scornful as she possibly could.

"Say the mandarin alphabet," she ordered, satisfied at Allison displayed command of both French and Spanish.

Allison did so.

"That sounds like you were just saying the same sound over and over again," Bo objected. Allison beamed with unabashed pride. "Good! That means I got it right."

Channing gave her a nod. "You did okay," she answered. "How did you learn all that?"

"I got bored," she answered.

Bo elbowed her in the side. "She used the internet."

"So that's why there are so many foreign languages videos on my browser history."

Bo sighed heavily. "I wish I could go to school." She seemed to sink into her chair.

Allison made a scoffing sound. "No you don't." Allison and Tate chorused together.

"School doesn't teach you a damn thing. You might as well be going to prison," Allison grimaced. "You don't learn anything there. It's so boring I could actually feel my brain start to atrophy and rot from lack of use."

Winter laughed outloud, and looked again at the paper with alphabets written across it. "And to think I was worried you'd waste away your time out of school."

Tate glanced at the paper and sighed, "We've definitely got a mutant here, Milton. Moving things with your mind is one thing, but learning all this junk and wanting to learn? That's definitely not normal."

Bo glared at him in disapproval as Milton looked at him with reproach.

Tate held up both hands. "What? It's true."

"That's not nice, Tate." Bo scolded him as Winter knelt down and looked Allison in the eye.

"If you could learn all these alphabets in less than a day, to read and to write them, I have a feeling nothing is out of your grasp, child." smiled at her warmly.

Unaccustomed to kindness, this look unnerved Allison, immediately she grimaced and got out of her chair, backed away from Winter, pulling Bo along with her. She continued to pull Bo along by the hand until they were both safely across the room. Once there, the three adults watched as Bo ran to get a jump rope that Milton had provided her. She tied it to the end of she and Allison's bed, and handed the other end to Allison. Once she was standing in the middle, Allison turned the rope underhand, so that it only swung half way up.

It was clear that Allison hadn't been able to fully heal herself. Her slow movements and limited mobility were not at all the fast natural movements they were used to seeing from her.

"Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsiolon Zeda," Allison's voice sang the alphabet out in rhythm with Bo's short jumps.

Bo joined in, " Aida, Theta, Iyoda, Kappa, Lambda."

"Mee, Nee, Si, Omnikron, Pi, Ro."

"Sigma, Taf, Epsilon, Fee, Hee, Psi, Omega!"

"If they sing that all day, this is gonna get old quick," Tate announced, looking on.

They watched as Allison lay down on the their bed, tired out, and simply watched Bo instead. Too tired to join in with the physical play that Bo was now doing, which was making a hop-scotch game on the floor with chalk, Allison simply joined in as Bo tried, and failed to sing the Russian alphabet. It was clear they were going to practice like this for most of the day.

"Well, I'm over it," Tate announced, turning and walking away. "They better not be singing all day. It's worse than a Barney tape."

Imagine there's a line break here, cuz FFN won't let you see one...

"Tate?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it better to try to be nice to someone who's hurting you, or to fight back?"

"Woah, where'd this come from?" Tate sat down on Bo's side of the bed, tucking her in. Allison had been sleeping for hours. She seemed to be worn out, but Tate chalked that up the effort she'd expended trying and failing to heal herself.

"Nowhere. Allison was just telling about what school is like."

Tate gave a half smile. "Not like how you imagined it was, huh?"

Bo shook her head hard.

"Allison said I'd get attacked because I'm nice. She said kids prey on nice kids, on happy kids, and on smart kids."

"She's right."

"I mean prey, like a lion hunting a gazelle, Tate." Her eyes were wide and serious.

"I get that. You mean they'd really attack and try to hurt other kids just for fun."

She nodded. "Yeah." She breathed the word, still unable to believe it all."

"Again, that little friend of yours is right, that's exactly what kids are like. One bad kid by himself is bad enough, but you put a bunch of kids together and they could kill a person without a second thought."

Tate was silent for a while, then added sadly, "It's called mob-mentality. There's something you won't learn in school."

"Shouldn't you just ignore people when they're being mean to you?"

Tate shook his head again. If she was his kid, she sure had a lot to learn. "Acting like it doesn't bother you, showing no response, that's not the way to go. That's the way to go if you want to get beaten to death or buried alive."

"People like to think that humans are so evolved and compassionate. People are the cruelest things on the planet. They hurt people for fun. They hurt people because they enjoy it. They hurt people because they like seeing others in pain. No other animal on the planet is like that but humans. Humans are worse than the most blood thirsty vicious animal, because they prey to enjoy the kill."

Humans are dangerous as hell."

He had Bo's undivided attention. Her eyes were glued to him, her ears taking in his every word.

"Being told "ignore them and they'll stop' isn't a way to help someone get through being bullied, or beaten. Telling kids something like that makes them powerless. It takes away their power. When anyone who watches animals or people knows that it's the weak looking that get destroyed and ripped to pieces. The ones that are aggressive and stand up for themselves, the ones that won't back down or be submissive? That's who the hell gets left alone."

Best advice you can ever give to kids is to stand up for themselves. Not some bs about ignore it, or act like it doesn't bother you, or try to be their friend. They don't want that kind of shit. They want to beat you senseless."

Finally Bo spoke again. "Don't you think that's a little harsh?"

"No, kid, that's how it is in the real world. The sooner you learn that, the safer you'll be. Think of all the people who are after us right now. Do you think if we came to them and said, "Hey let's be friends!" They'd go for it?" No, they'd take you for a sucker and throw you in the back of a van."

"It's easy enough under normal circumstances for people to think of reasons to dehumanize another person. But it is so much easier to dehumanize a person who doesn't fight back or stand up for themselves. It's much easier to abuse a person that someone sees as weaker than themselves."

Bo bit her lower lip, looking guilty or ashamed and asked, "What about people you can't fight off? Or what if you're so scared you freeze up?"

Tate clasped his hands together on his knees, let out a slow breath and thought a moment before answering. "It's true that sometimes not fighting is the best option. You have to listen to your gut, to your instinct. If there's a chance you can get out alive you take that chance. Sometimes that means running away, or fighting, sometimes that means playing dead. You listen to your gut, it'll usually tell you just what to do, or not to do."

"And is it your fault?" Bo's eyebrows raised so that her forehead made little questioning wrinkles. "What if you're stronger than someone but they hurt you anyway?"

"If they're doing something wrong, if they're hurting you," Tate's eyes locked on Bo's, "that doesn't mean you're wrong. If you didn't do the bad thing, you're not to blame. Even if you don't stop the bad thing, if you can't fight, or if you're scared, it's still that person's choice to do something wrong. It's still their brain and their actions that are doing the wrong. And it would still be just as wrong if you fought them and got away to save yourself or if you saved yourself by playing dead."

Bo was silent for a while, and Tate knew now was the time to wait, not walk away. Finally Bo seemed to screw up her strength to ask another question.

"Tate?"

He looked at her.

"Do you think it's okay to hurt someone if hurting them will stop them from hurting others?"

"Yup."

"What about killing someone? Is it ever okay to kill someone?"

"Are you thinking about killing someone?" Tate laughed at the idea.

Bo's smiled lifted her cheeks and brightened her face. "No," she laughed.

When Tate didn't answer she asked again. "Do you think it's okay to kill someone in self defense?"

"If they're gonna kill you, then yes."

"What if they weren't going to kill you but they almost did? Or what if you thought they were going to kill you?"

Tate remembered Bo's nightmare from weeks back.

"If they're a dangerous person, if they really hurt people..."

"What if they just-"

"Rape someone?" Tate's eyebrows were lifted and his forehead creased.

Surprise showed in Bo's eyes.

"I told you, ya don't have to be pyschic to know things," he grinned at her.

"Okay," Bo sighed,keeping her voice low. "Well what about then?"

"If they're a rapist?"

Bo nodded solemly.

"I'd kill them the first chance I got."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, Bo. People like that are sick. They're dangerous. The only thing that stops them is a bullet to the head. Otherwise they just go on destroying people's lives. They may not have killed a person's body, but they change a person forever. The old person that they were was killed, and that's worse. At least when you die you can go home to Jesus. But when your spirit is killed like that there's no one to pick up the pieces but whatever is left of you."

Milton Winter was seated comfortably with a day-old copy of the New York Times. The old leather chair was comfortable, and he had one foot propped up on the low wood table in front of him. He heard nothing from Channing's designated room, and further down he heard a low conversation between Bo and Tate that soon resolved. He saw Tate leave Bo's room and head to his own. It was quiet in their space now. The thick walls of the old building kept out even the loudest noises from the outside world.

Milton sighed comfortably.

"This isn't too bad," he muttered the words softly, as if afraid to break the sudden spell of peace. He smiled and gently turned the page of the paper, softly, so that it didn't crackle. His old brown eyes were drawn to the story halfway down the page. He stared at it.

"Three Teens Dead in Orphanage Fire"

"So much for peace."

\- - Still finishing up the next chapter, but will make sure enough of you have read up through this chapter before I post it. Once I get five reviews on this one, I'll be able to post the next chapter with a clear conscience.


	21. Chapter 21

Want more chapters? The biggest factor that slows things down on my end is waiting for people to review. I don't like to update until at least five different people (ideally logged in, thanks) review. That tells me people are reading and that me writing chapters isn't a total waste of time. So if you want more chapters the fastest way to get that it to review!

If you want more detailed chapters or chapters that focus on certain things- I can only do that when I have the time to write. Getting enough reviews by Friday or Saturday, when I still need two chapters to 'finish up' the last episode? Means that those chapters will have almost no detail in them, or will be leaving out alot. The best way to help me be able to write nice chapters is to review early. That way I have a whole week instead of a day to write chapters to finish up that week's episode.

I like to have chapter correspond with each week's episode. That means I like to have a new chapter focusing on Sunday's episode usually churned out by Monday, leaving me the rest of the week to publish subsequent chapters and be set up for the next Sunday's episode. Review right away, and review often.

When I get reviews too late that slows everything down, and that's why I'm so far behind now, and have had to skip certain episode entirely. Lack of reviews. So help me help you= review!

This chapter is based upon the requests I've gotten thru PM lately and in reviews. This is not a Fluff chapter. Hope it satisfies. This was supposed to be only 2 chapters, but I think it will end up being 5! So hurry up and REVIEW because I have 3 more chapters that are done that need to get published and this is all before Sunday's episode!

TW for rape details in this and the upcoming chapter, nothing that's too graphic, just honest.. btw FFN considers the word rape to be a curse word. Way to put more shame into that that shouldn't be there. Rape is a crime, not a curse word.

Remember that as an orphan who kept being sent back and not adopted and treated badly by everyone Allison already doesn't trust people. Allison is in the story for multiple reasons, don't forget. Add to that the fact that she was abused physically while in the orphanage and possibly in other ways in different foster homes, not to mention how she's treated at school, she doesn't feel safe anywhere either and has zero reason to trust anyone, because she has never had a stable environment that was safe, or people in her life for periods of time longer than a year. She doesn't trust Milton or Tate or Channing because she never trusts anyone. The only person she does trust is Bo. She doesn't trust Winter because of his association with Orchestra, and doesn't trust Tate because she doesn't know him, and he's a man. But she trusts Tate more than Winter, though that isn't saying much. She didn't trust Channing when she found out she was also with Orchestra, but Bo changed her mind, sort of. Now that her body is starting to heal, more of Allison's emotional junk is going to start coming to the surface like right...now!

"Well, Miss Bo," Milton Winter approached Bo, with a grin. "Miss Allison has had a chance to practice her skills the other day, what do you say we do something with yours too, hmm? How'd you like to play a game?" He held up a pan full of water.

Allison looked right at Winter, her happy demeanor immediately chanigng. Her face became clouded, dark, and dangerous. She stood up from the bed she and Bo were seated on playing checkers.

"What are you talking about?"

Either oblivious to Allison's change, or not afraid of it, Winter put the pan of water down and asked boldly, "What are the names of the boys who raped you?"

Bo's mouth dropped open in shock. 'Milton! You can't say something like that!" She objected. "You can't ask that!"

Bo was horrified.

Milton cocked one eyebrow up and waited, staring at Allison.

Allison stared right back at him, letting him know that she wasn't afraid of him, even though she was and would do whatever it took to keep herself and Bo safe-especially from him.

"Afraid I'm going to kill you too, Milton?" Her voice changed, sickeningly sweet at one end and dangerous as a knife point at the other. Abruptly, using strength she didn't have, Allison grabbed Bo roughly the shoulder and pulled her to her, yanking her across the floor as she walked to the middle of the room, intentionally distancing them from Milton Winter.

"Their names." He turned so that she was in his eyeline, but he didn't move forward.

"I wasn't wrong. I'm not wrong."

"I think you are."

"I bet a lot of people who've been raped, or have had their children or wives or husbands raped would disagree with you. When was the last time you were raped, Mr. Winter? When was the last time you saw upclose what rape can do to children?"

Feeling the temperature drop in the room and an eerie silence, Channing and Tate came out from their respective rooms to see what was going on.

From behind her, Tate recognized the stance Allison was using. Afraid of setting her off, he didn't want to speak, but hoped that Milton Winter knew that he was in danger.

Allison's arms were out from her body like swan's wings, but there was something menacing and deadly about the move, like a cobra unfurling it's hood. Her undone curls were floating slightly off her shoulders and back.

This is bad. This is really bad.

She stood between Milton and Bo. Carefully and quietly Tate circled around so that he was next to, but slightly behind Winter.

"What did you do to get her so upset?" He hissed the words under his breath. Channing had moved so that she was to Bo's right, directly across from Allison, ready to intervene if needed.

"I confronted her about her rapists, the children that raped her, Mister Tate," Winter kept his voice low, but made it clear that it was no secret.

"I'm no shrink, but I'm going to guess that was a really bad idea, Winter. Considering how you're not a shrink either. And you don't confront a victim of rape, you confront the rapists."

"I might do that, Mister Tate," he answered evenly, not unlocking his gaze from Allison, "if they were alive. Bo's friend killed them the other night. She killed the boys that raped her."

Bo spoke up then. "They're not children, Winter. They were adults."

"Were," he whispered. "You knew about this, Bo?"

She nodded.

"It was the right thing to do, Winter."

Milton asked his original question. "What were their names?"

The muscles in Allison's shoulders and neck tensed so strongly that they stuck out from her skin like steel cords. Whatever sh ow of strength she was giving off to try to intimidate Milton Winter, it was clear that talking about so recent a trauma was physically painful for her.

"Have you ever been raped?"

"No."

"Then let me fill you in on a few things."

Anger. Tate could feel her anger, her rage. It was emenating from her body in waves, much like when they'd first seen her in New York and she'd been angry with the FBI for chasing and scaring Bo.

-Okay GO! Review! I wanna get the next chapter out.


	22. Chapter 22

This is a very serious chapter, possibly difficult to read but please do. Please be respectful when you read, and be respectful when you review. Trigger Warning for a young girls' description of the crime of rape, which is completely devoid of any societal expectation of body shame. Also, if you or anyone you know needs help speaking about sexual assault please visit the RAINN website and use their online hotline. Btw this chapter was intentionally written in a stream of consciousness viewpoint of the character, which is bascially just her talking the entire 's also the length of three regular chapters. Get a snack guys. I tried to make it really interesting, but it's possible I screwed up and it's just a really boring read.-=-=-

Tate stared at Allison and noticed that her grey eyes had actually changed color. They were now a deep shining amber.

_That's weird._

Allison kept looking at Milton Winter, but she wasn't seeing him. Tate knew she wasn't seeing him. The kid was only an inch taller than Bo, but right now she seemed as powerful as a storm, and several stories tall, looking down on the mere mortals beneath her.

Allison then answered Milton's question.

"Kris Cook, Bradley Cook and Jason Evans raped me. Those were the monsters that did this to me."

She thought they deserved to be named, a name for each monster.

"You think it's not going to happen. Because you think no one would actually do that. And because you're so shocked to find out that's exactly what they're going to do, you don't fight back, because you're just in shocking thinking, this is going to stop, it has to stop because this can't be real. It can't be happening to you. It cannot be about to happen. You're not old enough to really know what's about to happen, because that's only something adults are supposed to do, but you have an idea, and from what you know the idea repulses and and also seems physically impossible, not to mention really painful. And cuz you're thinking how this can't happen instead of trying to keep it from happening, it does happen.

But you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what they want to do to you. You just know that they are looking at you like a hungry dog, like they are starving and you're a plate of food. You're confused why they're looking at you like that."

"They punch you, they kick you, they pull your hair. Then they start touching you. They touch you in places you know you're supposed to feel bad about, feel ashamed of because you're a girl. Because for some reason having a girl's body and being a girl is some sort of sin, so existing as a girl is like this dirty, bad thing. But I'm not an idiot, so I sort of know better than that."

"They take your clothes off, they rip them off your body and it hurts because they're tearing at your clothes the way a lion rips off flesh. They rip your clothes off. You hear the fabric tearing. Then you're even more afraid. Because you're used to being hurt, you're used to being hit, but you're not used to people wanting to see you naked while they hit you. So, you know something is wrong with that, that something worse is about to happen, but you just don't know what. You can't figure it out."

You're completely naked and you're ashamed. Ashamed because you're naked, and ashamed because your body looks like a boy's. And your body gets teased for looking like a boy with clothes on, how much more are these boys going to tease you about you looking like a boy with your clothes off? Are they going to make more jokes about you being a carpenter's dream? Instead of focusing on the horrible crime that is happening to you right now, at this point "only" the crime of molestation, you're ashamed because your body isn't as developed as the other girls at school. Because they are staring at your naked body and making fun of you for not having a woman's body. "

"And then they start running their hands over your boobs, which are just two little hard lumps that hurt, and you wish they weren't there and wonder why your body has to change and why can't it just stay the same this is stupid. And they're doing that, touching you in this place that no one has ever touched you in before and it feels entirely different from being touched on your head or your leg.

Touching you in this place feels like barfing. It feels like somoeone is making you eat brussel sprouts. It feels like someone is smearing your body with dog shit. It feels like the most disgusting feeling in the world. And you learn that this new part of your body is disgusting, and that is what touching this part of the body feels like. Like sick disgustingness. And that's a new thing that you learned today. Because you know what it feels like to be touched anywhere else, it just feels like hey someone's touching my hair, or someone is touching my arm. Anywhere else feels like touch. That's it. Just touch.

But now you know that this new place being touched doesn't feel at all like being touched. Being touched here feels like your body is wrapped in the feeling of disgustingness and sickening. Having someone touch your boobs feels like how medicine tastes, and not just there, but your entire body feels disgusting. That's what this new thing on your body feels like. And you know this now, and you don't ever want to know it again. But it's kind of interesting because you learned something about your body you never knew before, and wouldn't have known if this hadn't been happening to you."

Allison swallowed and kept talking.

"Then they start touching you between your legs. But that's at least not a place that's new. It's been on your body forever. Except for the gross hair that grows on it, it's familiar territory. Being touched there doesn't feel like disgusting tastes. Being touched there feels like someone is breaking into your house. Your doctor has touched there before, and it hurts, but that's normal. It doesn't feel disgusting. But this is different too. Somehow these boys touching you there, it doesn't hurt, but it does feel in your entire body and soul, for some reason like a part of you is being broken into. It feels the ways a broken window sounds. It feels like you're about to lose a part of yourself.

And then they start petting your hair, playing with it, running their fingers through it like it's a rake, and I don't mean the hair on your head. Like it's a dog or a chia-pet. They start rubbing you there and it's gross. And what is wrong with them? You can tell they are really having fun doing this, and you wonder what's wrong with their brains, don't they have anything better to do?"

"And because you're so confused about all this, you're so shocked, and none of it makes sense, and your brain is spending it's time trying to understand what's happening and wondering what's wrong with these people that it doesn't think oh I should get away. So that when they start doing really bad things, it's too late because it happens so fast.

Because now they're holding you down, and you're not wondering about new feelings of grossness, because you know the feeling that's going to come next. You know they are going to hurt you. You know how pain feels. You've gotten spanked enough and hit enough. You know pain. But because there's three of them and they're holding you down, you're sort of wondering how they're going to hurt you. Why can't they punch you standing up?"

She took a deep breath. Tate wanted to move to cover Bo's ears, to stop her from hearing what she was about to hear, but he was frozen, riveted to Allison's story and her truth.

"And then they take off their pants, and their underwear. And even though you've never seen a boy naked before and don't know what to think, and you haven't even been to church and been told that it's wrong, your entire body reacts like it's being forced to watch someone run over a puppy. It wants with all it's being to not see this. This is how I know that kids my age are too young for sex, because your brain and your body are so conditioned genetically that it's wrong at that age- because it IS wrong."

"You try to look away, but one of them holds your head. So you shut your eyes. But the other one holds your eyelids open, so you're forced to see. And you're not thinking about this being wrong, but your self is saying how much you don't want this, and because you don't want this, and you so badly don't want this, that is what makes it wrong. How much they are not listening to how much you don't want this is what makes it so wrong and bad. How much you don't want to see them naked or have anything to do with their nakedness.

"You wouldn't think a naked body is a big deal. Sometimes you see someone naked by accident, or a baby that's naked. But that's not at all the same as seeing someone naked that you don't want to see naked. It's not like oops, sorry I didn't mean to see you, it's I don't want to see you. I don't want to see you and you are forcing me to see you. And that's wrong because you shouldn't want me to see you, and you shouldn't want to force me to see you when you shouldn't want me to see you naked at all.

They wave their penises at you like they're sparklers. I'm not sure if they thought I should be impressed by their penises or scared of them. I just wondered why they cared so much, or why they'd think I'd care. I didn't. Big deal, you have a penis. Who cares? What is wrong with you? You have serious problems if you want to do this, and this is what you think is fun. You have serious, serious problems. I'd be embarrassed if I thought playing with myself naked was fun, or if other people seeing me play with my penis was fun.

And why would they want me to watch this? It's confusing and gross and stupid.

But I wasn't scared. Because I didn't think what was going to happen was going to happen, I was actually trying to figure out why they were doing this and why and how in the world anyone could think this was fun- because let me tell you, those boys were just loving all of this. Everything they were doing to me? They were acting like they were at a basketball game or a carnival or Disney World. Just having the time of their lives and can't wait to do this again."

"I wanted to get away but I couldn't. Jason and Kris pulled my legs apart, pulled them sideways all the way till the touched the floor. I heard sounds like ripping fabric, and it felt like my skin was on fire and like my legs were going to be pulled out of their sockets. Then Brad grabbed his penis and pushed it into my vagina. It felt like someone punched me in the mouth with their fist and their fist was in my mouth, then they shoved their other fist in my mouth, breaking my jaw, then pulled their arms apart, tearing my mouth to pieces.

"It felt like someone had put a bomb inside of me. It like like I'd had my arm shoved into a paper shredder and then had alcohol and salt poured on what was left. And I compare what was being done to my vagina to having things done to other parts of my body because I've never had anything done to my vagina before. I've never had anything inside it and don't think anything is made to go inside it. I know that for sure now, because of how much it hurt when something was put inside it. It felt like every part of my body was being ripped away. It hurt so much I thought I was going to die. I felt my skin ripping and tearing, and possibly every part of me that was attached to something being ripped off until it gushed blood ."

"Then I felt inside. I felt what my insides felt like inside. My vagina has an inside and it feels. I mean it can actually feel things. like, like feelers on a bug or an antanea or whiskers on a cat! It feels like a hand. I mean I can actually feel things with it. I could feel his penis and if felt the exact same as if I had my hand wrapped around it. THe vagina, it's shaped and feels like when you make a circle with your fingers. It's a very feely thing which was shocking because I'd never felt it before, I never had any reason to know it existed and that is surprising because for something that can feel as much as your skin can feel, as much as your hands can feel, you'd think I'd have felt it before now. Wouldn't you?"

The question was somewhat shocking. All the adults seemed shaken out of their listening and seemed to worry about having an answer, but Allison continued.

"Inside me I could feel like a heart beat, like a pulse, like when you feel your pulse in your neck. I'm not sure what that was, and I wondered if Brad could feel that, if it was his penis having a heart-beat or my vagina."

"So on top of all the awful pain I felt all that. I learned more stuff about my body. I learned things I'd never heard described before even in books. No one said your vagina feels like a hand on the inside. That it has a sense of touch, and that you can only feel the inside of your vagina when something else is in it. And that the inside of your vagina feels exactly like and is shaped like when you make a spy-glass shape with your hand. And no one said that it had a heart beat."

The adults in the room were dumb-struck. For the men, this was as close to knowing what it felt like to be a woman as they'd ever get. Any questions about what it was like to have female anatomy had now been answered with surprisingly effective description. Her innocent wonder and constant observation that was clearly forced upon her even during rape made for a sick feeling that couldn't be described. Channing was silent, but tears like rivers were running down her face neck and chest.

"So Brad put his penis inside me, and pulled it out and put it back in and did that over and over again. Everytime he put it back in it felt like he was slicing into me with knives from the inside and the outside. And his penis by the way feels kind of like a hot dog that's made of cement but is also warm, and possibly has a heartbeat. And then when he was finally done, Jason and Kris did the exact same thing, too."

"I never knew that about a boy's penis either. Not that I wanted to, but you know, I guess it's good to learn new things." She shrugged as if she didn't really believe it.

Allison had been staring into space during this speech. Now that she'd stopped talking, her eyes began to focus again. She was silent for a few moments more and the searching intelligent almost innocent look left her face and was replaced by the cold hard dark angles of anger and injustice.

"So, Milton, that's what it feels like to be raped. Overall it's a very scary, confusing and really really painful thing. And remember when I said it felt like a house being broken into? When it was all over I knew I had been broken into, beaten into with baseball bats, until everything inside me was shattered broken, torn and covered with blood. There was blood all over the place when it was over. It hurt to move. I felt like I'd been hit in the stomach with crow bars, and my vagina hurt, and moving my legs hurt. There was so much blood going down my legs I looked like I'd squirted an entire bottle of katsup on myself."

In telling her story she'd apparently forgotten to keep her electric forcefield up. Remembering that now, she immediately put it back up.

"As bad as that felt, like it was a horrible school lesson from hell, it was even worse the next day because I couldn't walk at all, and I hurt so bad I thought I was going to die. But I realized that I couldn't tell anyone. Because who would believe that something so awful could happen?

"And that's when I realized that what they did to me was the thing that they call rape. Such a huge huge catastrophe for such a small insignificant sounding word."

"And the fear. The fear that they would do that to me again. That I would feel that pain again. And only then did it dawn on me that I should have fought them off. I didn't fight. I didn't fight at all. If I'd known that was what was going to happen, you bet I would have fought. But how can you really know what sex is until it happens to you? It wasn't anything like what you see in the movies or they talk about in books. It's like someone describing a swan to you, then showing you a penguin. You wouldn't know it was a swan because it looks nothing like it.

"So now on top of the fear of someone doing that to me again, someone able to take all control over my body and your brain going in a million directions at once trying to understand what's happening- now there's this shame because I didn't fight back. And more shame because I could have fought back and won. But how can you know something this horrible is about to happen to you, unless you've already had it happen. I didn't know they were going to do that, but now I know. Had I known before I would have killed them right away rather then let them do that to me."

"So, you're upset that I killed them. I'm upset with myself because I didn't see this coming, and didn't kill them sooner."


	23. Chapter 23

When Allison Cramer had finished speaking, Milton Winter was no long as upset at her for killing the teenagers who had raped her.

Milton Winter and everyone else in the room was in awe of this powerful little girl. Milton knew that most girls her age who had grown up with parents telling them that talking about their bodies was wrong, that sex was wrong, would never be able to so clearly articulate, and articulate without a trace of shame not just that they were raped, but exactly what happened to them when they were raped.

Allison Cramer grew up with no idea that her body was something she should be ashamed of, or that the human body was something that shouldn't be talked about, so in her most recent experience with human bodies she described every part of the experience as if it were a field trip. And in a horrible way it had been, the most horrific way that child could learn about their own body by the way that someone else destroyed it.

"I don't support what they did, but I don't believe in killing people, young lady."

"And now you know why there are so many people being raped in this country. Because most states believe the same thing that you do. You know how many children get sexually abused?" She asked this question calmly, but there was no disguising the hurt and rage in her voice at a possible lifetime of injustices. "About fifty percent of all kids, boys and girls included. That's because this country shares your view on the punishment.

If they killed them that number would drop, not because the threat of death deters, but because in killing them you'd prevent hundreds of other incidents. The average rapist rapes like twenty people before they're caught, then they let them out of jail and they rape like twenty more before they're caught again."

Sparks were coming from her fingertips, but Tate had a feeling that Allison was waning on energy.

She shrugged one shoulder and looked at Bo. "The internet," she explained, as if answering a question she'd asked.

"Well, Milton?" Tate crossed his arms on his chest and leaned back slightly, keeping his weight on his back foot.

Keeping his voice low he added, for the old man's benefit, "Right now in her world, and for the rest of her life there are no more shades of grey. Everything is either black or white. Either you accept everything that she is and has done and love her not in spite of but because of the things she's done, or you hate her. Either you think she's right for killing those kids, or you think they're right in raping her."

"What? I won't accept that.I don't think killing her rapists is right."

"You'd better, if you want her to stick around, or you won't see Bo in this lifetime."

Bo was entirely behind Allison, and Tate knew it was intentional. Bo didn't like to stay behind anyone, let alone be out of eyesight of dear Milton which told him that Allison was keeping her in place somehow. With her own weird spookie powers.

"This is the world she's in now, and now that she's told us this and she's in our care we support her, that's all you do. That's all she needs. People who will support her and not turn away."

Channing had moved from her spot across from Allison and stood next Milton.

"He's right," she whispered. "Most kids like her are shunned for even speaking about it, and are told they're wrong if they so much as wish bad upon their rapists. But, she is right Milton, about the number of people that rapists rape. Hundreds in their lifetimes. And if the first person had been able to kill the person who raped them, just think of how many children and adults they might spare from a similar hell."

Milton turned to her with surprise. "You agree with this?"

Channing nodded her dark eyes now dry, not driven by emotion but solid fact and evidence.

"On this, yes I do. Wholeheartedly."

Tate nodded at Allison, who was still standing protectively between Milton and Bo.

"You might want to tell her that. But," he looked at Milton, "not before you tell her she did right. If you don't, she's not gonna let you get near Bo in this life."

"I won't do that," he answered. "I do not agree with killing people."

"You're either with her, or against her." Channing whispered this, echoing Tate's own words. "You either respect her for what she shared with you, and stand by her in any decision she makes regarding her rape and her recovery, or you walk away. Because right now she's thinking of how you'd treat Bo if something similar happened to her, or if you did something similar to her."

Milton shot her a look of revulsion.

"But you make that choice now, Milton. Right now."

Winter turned to look at Tate. They stared at each other for a long time. Finally, Milton tossed his hands up.

"Fine. But Allison, I do not have a problem sending you back to that orphanage, at which point you'll have to own up to what you did."

"You're bluffing," she countered, letting Milton know that she was in control of this situation, as well as painfully used to being thrown back. A little girl trying to act like the hurts of the world didn't hurt her, when the truth was obvious in every crevice of her body, every intonation of her voice.

"You will follow our rules while you are here," he repeated.

Allison looked back at Bo as if to say, are you serious you actually want this guy around?

"Stay!" Bo pleaded. "I want you here. I want you to stay. I don't care about what you did. It was the right thing to do, they would have hurt a lot more people if you'd let them live. You're right, they would have kept on hurting you or other kids."

Allison looked back at Winter. It was clear she was exhausted, but was too proud to give in or admit defeat.

"You stay here with us, Miss Allison and you'll be a target of Orchestra as much as Bo. And you obey myself, Miss Channing and Mister Tate."

Allison just stared at him, her long curls blowing off her shoulders from the static field. She stood strong, unyielding. "You hurt her and I kill you," she countered.

Tate knew 'obey' was the wrong word to use. It's impossible to truly be able to obey someone you don't trust. And like it or not, even in the best of circumstances, it would take a girl like Allison years to trust anyone at all.

"Winter," Tate clapped his hand on the man's back. "Let's go. Gotta cut the tension with a few less people, I think. You agree to disagree and that sort of thing. She'll follow your rules, and will kill people that hurt her or Bo, but other than that she'll follow whatever weird rules you have."

"That doesn't seem like much of an agreement."

"It's all you're going to get."

Channing nodded.

"Fine," Winter's voice was gravely. He announced for Bo's benefit, "Mister Tate and I are going for a walk, Bo."

The second Winter turned his back on Allison to follow Tate, Allison's shoulders dropped down and Allison's body caved with exhaustion as she fell to the ground, dropping Bo's to the floor as she did. Bo, in order to keep her behind her, she'd found she needed to lift off the floor to keep her in one place, to keep her from as much as peeking at Milton or Tate.

Allison woke up in Channing's bed, high up off the floor on wooden flats. Channing was nowhere to be seen, but Bo was. Bo was sitting on the floor, practicing writing from the alphabets Allison had made. She looked up.

"You're awake."

Allison nodded.

"Feel better now?"

"Yeah," she yawned and stretched, then winced remembering she hadn't been able to fully heal herself.

As if reading her mind Bo spoke up and said, "Don't worry, you can keep trying you know. Maybe it's too big a hurt to fix all at once, but that doesn't mean to give up. Maybe you just have to keep trying."

Allison pushed the floral sheets off of her, ready to join Bo on the floor with their own made up school work when Tate entered.

"Hey, kid, we're back," he addressed Bo, seeming not at all surprised to see her on the floor, because he wasn't. By now he was used the anything Bo did, and having to accept it as normal. Sitting on the floor writing wasn't that unusual after all.

"Winter wants to see you."

A grin like spreading sunshine split Bo's face, and she pushed herself up from the floor. Allison watched her go, unconcerned. In a flash Allison felt as if she were being choked, as if all the air was being sucked out of the room. As she watched Bo follow after Tate the world seemed to spin backwards. She thought of Orchestra, if this was something else they were trying, and of Jason and Kris and Bradley, trying to get her from their charred graves.

Then a stabbing pain in her chest told her that it was possible she was the problem.

_I'm dying,_ she realized. But looking at Bo and Tate, who now seemed to be moving in slow motion is seemed as if for some reason Tate and Bo were the reason for her problem. No, it was Tate, she realized. Tate was the problem. He was going to hurt Bo.

The pain in her chest, right in the center of her sternum felt as if someone was hammering a knife into her. Her heart was racing and her whole body shook as she struggled to breath.

_I have to stop him._

But it was Bo who stopped, suddenly turning around.

"Something's wrong with Allison!"

She felt the pain in Allison's body and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Channing!" She yelled. "Come quick! Bring medicine, Allison's hurt!"

Not far away, Channing obeyed, bringing the kit Sara'd made for her. But it didn't take more than one look to realize all the medicine in the world wouldn't help.

"You need to leave," she spoke the words low, aimed at Tate.

"Why?"

"Just do it," she hissed. "You and Winter need to leave. She's having a panic attack. You trying to take Bo to Winter, or you taking Bo anywhere probably triggered it."

"But, I-"

"Just go!" Her voice was terse.

With a glance back at Allison and Bo back on the floor he turned and walked out.

When she heard Winter and Tate leave, Channing knelt down on the floor in front of Allison.

"Allison, what's wrong?"

"She hurts," Bo spoke for her.

"I think she's having a heart attack. Her heart hurts really bad, and she feels like someone's choking her. Her throat hurts really bad and she can't breathe."

Channing put her slim hand on top of Allison's head.

"Allison," she kept her voice steady and low, "you're okay. I know it feels like your body is on fire and being pulled apart piece by piece. You're in horrible pain, but it's from something that's scaring you, instead of something hurting you. The fear is taking on a physical form of pain. Your body is reacting to something that scared you. You're having what's called a panic attack, it's a sign of post-traumatic-stress disorder. It's something that is happening to you because you were raped. And since it's happening to you, this pain, this feeling of terror that's making you gasp for air and shake is something that is going to happen to you now for the rest of your life. It's not fair, I know. But it's something that happens to people like you, to kids and adults too."

Allison started to sob like a baby. Channing felt relief in seeing this, as the entire time she'd known Allison she'd seen nothing but a rock solid front, and no emotion was let out unless it was a strong or a happy emotion.

"I don't wanna feel like this forever!"

"You won't. You know about it right away, and that might actually help you fix it. Maybe it won't follow you into adulthood. But you have to use your words. You have to talk about how you feel. How what happened to you makes you feel."

Her eyes grew large and she stared at Channing with certain boldness. "No. No way."

"It's the only thing that's going to help you."

"Well how do you think it made me feel? Like a trip to Disney World?"

"When you need to talk about it, you can write it down, or you can come find me," Channing looked deeply into Allison's eyes, until Allison looked down.

Channing shifted the topic. "Do you know why you feel this way? What scared you right now with Bo?"

"Tate might hurt Bo."

"What?" Bo's voice indicated Allison was crazy.

Channing just nodded, as if it made perfect sense to her.

"He wouldn't hurt me, ever."

"He could," she gasped. "And Winter, especially Winter."

"Look at me," Channing grabbed Allison gently by the chin and forced her gaze.

"Winter may seem odd to you, but he has reasons for everything that he does. I know you worry because he used to be a part of Orchestra, and I know you must know that I was too."

"He could hurt her, or me- either of them could."

"No, they wouldn't do that!"

"Because they're men," Channing nodded understanding. "Because they have the physical ability to do to you what those boys did."

"I understand why you think they would. You don't know them or any of us well enough to trust us. But I hope that given enough time you will."

"They wouldn't hurt me, honest. I've known Milton my whole entire life, and he's kept people from hurting me. And Tate, well, he makes mistakes, but he'd never hurt me on purpose."

"Except for letting that Sepeda person take you," she countered.

"Yeah, that wasn't a good idea."

"Take a deep breath." Channing noted that Allison's breathing was still shallow.

One shaky breath wasn't that much. "Try again, try to breath so deep your stomach sticks out."

After about twenty minutes Allison was back to normal.

"What if this happens again?"

Channing shrugged. "It will happen again, so it's not a question of 'if'. Now that you know what a PTSD panic attack feels like, you'll know you aren't actually going to die."

"And I thought all the injuries from being raped were my parting gift," she glared at the floor as Channing stood up and sat on the bed.

"Nope. Rape, it's the horrific nightmare that just keeps on kicking your ass. For the rest of your life."

Allison sighed.

"You wish those guys were still alive," Bo picked up on and voiced Allison's thoughts.

"Yeah," she nodded, her eyes dark, "so I could kill them again."


	24. Chapter 24

The sound of metal slamming alerted Milton Winter to danger. Quickly he rose to his feet, signaling Tate to check the window.

"Move!" Tate yelled, motioning rapidly with his hands to the curtains of Channing and Bo's rooms.

Winter ran to Channing's room, hearing all three of the girls' voice from there. "They've found us!"

Channing instantly picked Allison up from the bed, while Tate grabbed Bo's hand. They all ran for the exit.

Winter led the lot up and onto the rooftop of the large factory building. Tate, heading up the rear, slammed the metal fire door behind them, and kicked it's doorknob off. They ran across the gravel rooftop, and stopped at the edge of the building, unsure where to go now, or if they'd all be trapped.

There was only a rickety board bridge connecting their building to that across from it on the next block.

"You sure that thing's safe?" Tate asked staring at it.

"No, Mr. Tate," Winter answered, "I'm not, but we've got no choice."

Channing had put Allison down. Tate went to pick her up just as the rooftop door was kicked open.

"I've got it," Allison assured him. She levitated herself from the ground a few inches.

Tate looked at her. "If we all fall to our deaths, you catch her," he looked at Bo.

Allison shrugged. "Why do you think I'm here?"

She pushed herself forward in the air as Winter and Channing began their way across the tentative bridge. Tate picked up Bo and began carrying her across after Allison, not wanting to look backward or down.

Pushing herself through the air, Allison tried to do something to stop the men pursuing them, but found she was too exhausted and worn out from using so much strength recently. It took all her energy to lift her own weight.

It was a relief to her when the bridge collapsed as soon as they were all safe. She smiled at Bo.

"Did you do that?" Tate asked.

Bo was both tired and surprised her trick had worked the way she wanted it to. "Uh huh," she breathed.

Not wasting any time they all ran.

Outside the building they were picked up by a car, and dropped off at an abandoned car service shop.

"Well, this is lovely."

Bo smiled.

"No one followed us?"

"We're safe, Mister Tate," Winter nodded.

A short time later, Winter and Channing were gone. Tate was left alone with Bo and Allison.

Bo had made up the girls' bed and Allison was in it, resting again. Tate looked at her and felt a pang of guilt recalling Allison's obvious looks of longing and envy when she watched Channing hug Bo, and Winter embrace her. But he knew from his own experience that for a kid like Allison showing emotion was a liability, especially if the emotions were things like sadness or needs.

It was obvious how badly this kid needed not someone to care about her, but to love her, to give her positive attention instead of beatings and rape. Asking her something like, "Do you wish you had a family" was stupid. Who did't wish for love?

"How much did you fix yourself?"

Allison shook her head. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't make it better."

He shrugged up one shoulder. "You fixed a lot. I think that will cut down the time, plus now your body has even less places to focus on fixing."

That was a couple of hours ago. Allison had fallen asleep just when Tate figured a good kid should, around 8pm. He'd tried to convince Bo to follow her friend's sleep schedule, but to no avail. Which is why just after 10pm, he'd managed to get Bo into bed when Allison was already fast asleep in dream world and snoring.

"She's really tired. Making the fire from so far away was hard. Keeping it only in one place was hard. Killing all three of them was hard."

Tate shook his head. "I guess. Long distance arson takes a toll."

Bo nodded sagely, even though she had no idea what that meant.

"Don't do that sort of stuff, okay"

She shrugged. "Wasn't planning on it."

As Tate told his daughter the story of how he met Nina, he was relieved to see no ill effects from Allison's story. Whether Bo hadn't been listening, or was simply too innocent for any of the story to reach her, he wasn't sure. But, he was happy she wasn't catatonic from hearing it. Because to be honest, even as a guy that had been really, really hard to hear, especially coming from a kid.

PAGE BREAK

"We should help him."

"What?" Allison cried. "No!" She reacted as if Bo'd just suggested it'd be fun to take a bath in molten lava.

"Your friend has the right idea, Bo." This is why I like her." He smiled at Allison.

Allison grinned and for a briefest of moments, she looked exactly like Bo. Carefree, happy, innocent. Then she kept shoveling food into her mouth and she was Allison again, curls looking like a lion's mane, and eating like one.

Bo began to pretend to be using her powers until Tate caved.

Allison laughed and Tate realized he'd just been played by his own daughter. But considering how fussy she was when she didn't get her way, and how important it was to keep her from using her powers, he didn't see another option but to cave.

They'd left the restaurant , a trio instead of a duo, when Bo said they needed to follow the man and his family.

"That's stalking, it's illegal."

"What are they gonna do, put you in jail again?" Allison laughed.

"Ha ha," he glared at her. "You should talk, Triple-Homicide."

She stuck her tongue at him, teasing, not at all bothered by being the only actual murderer among them. Because in her mind, she wasn't a murderer.

"You call me the Rape Avenger," she grinned.

Tate laughed and patted her on the back, gently. "Again, you see why I like this kid so much."

Bo suddenly looked at him wide-eyed and worried. "Don't worry," he grinned his goofy full of love grin at her, "I love you, I don't like her better than you."

When she nodded firmly and began walking again Tate made a mental note to talk to her about sharing love, and about Allison's need for not just attention, but love.

Bo was trying to pull Tate in the direction the man and his family had gone in, with Tate pulling in the opposite direction when Allison broke the tie.

"I can't go with you," Allison's words were soft. Tate stopped abruptly, realizing they'd both forgotten how injured and weak Allison still was. Bo said her inner thighs, and her pelvis she'd been unable to fix, so walking was still painful. Channing left him her morphine and anti-biotics, but that didn't mean she was supposed to be up walking around. Until or unless she was able to heal herself she had at least a month to go.

A few minutes later Allison was back asleep in their new hideout.

"We need to help that man." Bo was back at her argument.

"You can't leave your friend."

"She'll be okay. That man needs help. We have to help him."

Tate looked over at Allison. She was now awake, and looking directly at him. "You can go," she answered. "I can stay here just fine. Just make sure nothing happens to Bo."

Tate looked from Bo to Allison and back. He was new at the parenting thing, but he was pretty sure it was illegal to leave a kid alone.

"How old are you?"

"I'm not sure," she answered. "I'm in the fifth grade so I think I'm probably about 11."

"You seem a lot smarter than a fifth grader."

"Thanks, now go. I'm going to go to sleep now."

Reluctant, Tate removed the gun he had hidden in his bag. "Here, keep this. Since your powers are weak, you might need it."

She looked at Bo. "You won't need it?"

Bo concentrated for a moment, then shook her head. "No we won't need it."

"Okay," Allison took the gun, and placing it under her pillow she fell asleep. After locking the door behind them, Bo and Tate set off for what Tate was sure was another crazy idea.

Bo jumping on the bed is what woke Allison. "I got to ride a horse!" She squealed.

"No fair," Allison mumbled.

"Are you awake now?" She asked. "We have to go."

"I still need more sleep," she yawned and feel back to sleep.

"We've go to go now," Tate picked up Allison. Bo walked in front of him and held the door open.

Seeing Winter in the car by the shop she squealed and ran to it.

"Hey sweetheart. Mr. Tate," Winter nodded to him as Bo slide into the back seat and Tate placed Allison next to her, before getting into the passenger's seat.

"Ready to go see the new place?" Winter smiled at Bo's reflection in the rearview.

"Yeah!"

...I'm just in shock about them cancelling Believe. The show is awesome! They can't just let it be it,


	25. Chapter 25

_"Give a little of my heart, only then the beat will start, keeping me in time." _

Tate heard Allison's voice singing as he came out of the bathroom, thinking thoughts about breakfast and food.

_"Life doesn't wait for long," _this time he heard both Allison and Bo singing.

They were humming the tune when he walked up to them. Hanging out, once again in yet another empty warehouse building.

"What's that?" Tate asked with a yawn. He sat down on a chair, looking at the two kids. He was on his own again with them. And they'd clearly been making themselves busy, or at least entertained this morning while he slept. The pint-sized duo was sprawled on the floor playing with a bunch of little dolls made out of paper while they sang.

"A song," Allison looked up at him without a trace of sarcasm. Bo must be wearing off on her. Although the way Bo was behaving lately, it was possible she and Allison were trading off, not that Bo'd killed anyone, yet.

"Who sings it?"

"Bo."

"Oh." He shrugged. She writes stories, draws good, moves things with her mind, and oh yeah, now she writes music too.

"Zap this one!" Bo held up a paper doll of Dr. Skouras.

"Okay, let it go!" Allison commanded.

"Die, Skouras, die! Zzzap!" She crowed, pointing her index finger at the paper, as a tiny string of electricity shot out of her finger.

"Holy shit!" Tate jumped up from his chair as the effigy burst into flame.

"It's okay Tate, it won't burn the building down," Bo tried to answer to what she assumed his concern must be, "the floor's concrete."

Bo picked up another effigy of Skouras.

"Yes," Allison answered, looking intently at the new doll in Bo's fingers, "and don't swear." This time without any electric works, Allison simply set the paper on fire.

"Don't kill people." She glared at him. Tate smiled in response. Allison rolled her eyes, then went back to focusing her attention on things that mattered.

Bo used her powers to crumple one of the dolls into a ball.

Tate stared at the two. They were just as happy as could be, taking out their pent up frustrations out on dolls. Tate looked at Allison. _That's a really good thing in her case. _

"Guess for you two this is like going to a therapist, and working out your problems with dolls."

"Yeah," Bo answered, as Allison lit a Sepeda looking doll on fire, "except we use fire too."

The two laughed as Allison waved a paper Skouras in the air.

"Want one?"

He smiled and considered it a moment before shaking his head and waving it away with his hand. "No thanks, you keep it."

He thought of Winter then and added for Bo's benefit, "You know I don't think Winter would want you pretending to hurt anyone, even that nut-bag Skouras."

"Are you sure?" Allison looked up at him, her face the picture of innocence and benevolence.

Tate raised and eyebrow and let her know he knew a fake when he saw one.

"Yeah," he answered aloud, "I'm sure."

Allison looked sidelong at him mischeviously then and smirked as she asked, "Are you really sure?" Then she grinned.

He nodded at her as if she were slow. "Yeah, Triple-Homicide, I'm sure."

"Hey! I thought I told you to call me-"

"I am _not_ calling you Rape Avenger."

She looked at Tate as if he'd just thrown a bucket of mud on a birthday cake.

"You are no fun."

"That's the idea. Parenting and Babysitting 101."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head silently pronouncing him another hopeless adult.

"Come on," Bo tugged at Allison's arm, and the two grabbed their box of paper dolls again.

Allison lay on her stomach, kicking her legs behind her in the air, while Bo lay on her side, with the palm of her hand propping her head up.

Tate stayed where he was, seated, just watching. At the moment there was nothing else to do, and he had to admit the new kid was pretty entertaining what with her ability to arsonate everything.

Allison grabbed a few more things out of the box, which was an old shoe box, and Tate wasn't any more sure where the box had come from than the actual toys that were in the box. He was going to ask where Allison stole them from, but decided it would be a waste of energy and time.

Couru! Couru!" Allison made the two people in her left hand move forward, while being chased by the-

"Where'd you get that Godzilla toy?" Now that he was worth his time.

"The store," Allison answered, not caring about anything but her play as she made the Godzilla chase two Barbie dolls around.

Bo was playing with a cheap plastic lion, making it roar at Stanley beside her, then making Stanley chase the lion around.

"Die! Die! Die!" Allison (of course) was making the smaller Barbie doll kick the Godzilla in the head. Looking at Allison's playthings of choice, it was clear that the bigger Barbie had been killed by the Godzilla, and Allison was avenging that doll's death with the second doll.

"Go Barbie-Avenger," Tate muttered, as he watched with passing interest.

"What does couru mean?" Bo asked this as Stanley was being gained on by the lion.

"Run." Allison answered this distractedly as she lit the Godzilla toy on fire.

"No!" Tate shouted. "Put that fire out!"

Allison looked back at him in surprise, then to Tate's relief, she put the fire out as quickly as she started it. She then waved the Godzilla to cool it and looked back at Tate.

"You wanna play with the Godzilla toy." It was a statement, not a question.

"No," Tate looked at her like she was nuts, "I don't play with kids toys. What would I want with that thing?" He lifted his chin in defiance of any contrary thoughts and added, "I was just keeping you from making the place reek of burned plastic."

Allison and Bo exchanged smiles. "Uh huh," Bo laughed.

Bo watched as Allison made the Godzilla jump around, then with her mind, and without asking she grabbed Bo's lion and made the two toys jump around together. She was about to say "don't touch Stanley" but realized she didn't need to.

"So," Bo asked, "how did you learn French? Did you learn it at school?"

Allison shook her head, sending her sprawling curls in every direction at the movement. "No, they don't even start teaching languages until middle school or high school."

"When will that be?" Bo asked, as she scooted Stanley back and forth on the floor with her mind, making him move faster and faster as she stared.

"You don't know when middle school is? Wow, you are behind."

"I never went to school," there was the slightest bit of heat in Bo's voice, "remember?"

"Do you even know how to read?"

Bo stopped moving Stanley.

" Of course I know how to read!"

Allison shrugged bored with the plastic animals and chose another Skouras and a Sepeda out of their box. "How should I know? You said you never went to school."

"Well, I know how to read!"

"What about addition and multiplication-"

"I know all that stuff! Milton taught me!"

Allison held her hands out. "Okay, okay. I didn't know."

"I thought you were supposed to know stuff about people."

"I thought you were supposed to be learning to control your abilities," she countered.

"I am," Bo shoved a Skouras doll forward with her mind, as if to prove the point, then pushed a cement brick that was standing near a wall, over on it.

"Well, you were floating last night. It woke me up, the covers went up with you."

"Sorry, I can't help it." Bo answered, without any heat this time, then grabbed a small metal car out of the box and ran over another Skouras.

"Well, you'd better be careful," Allison warned. "For all you know, you could start floating and end up God knows where, all alone."

That thought had obviously never occurred to Bo as she sat up and stared at Allison, frightened. But Allison shrugged and added nonchalantly, "Not that I couldn't find you if you did, of course. And you're old enough now that if you did end up somewhere you could find your way back with the internet.

"So how'd you learn French then if you didn't learn it at school? Bo went back to her original question. "Did you learn it at the foster homes you stayed at, or the orphanage?"

Allison let out a sharp laugh. "Are you kidding? Those adults didn't know enough to tie their own shoelaces, let alone teach or speak any language other than English."

"So," Bo pressed on, "how did you learn it?"

In answer Allison just shrugged. "I dunno, I just know it."

"You didn't learn it?"

She shook her head, then looked into their box.

"We're running out of bad guys."


	26. Chapter 26

Lacking details, just wanted to get this up here...

...

"Are they hurting Channing?" Bo's face was riddled with worry, as she looked at Allison for confirmation. Milton hadn't told her anything, Tate did. All he'd said was that "Orchestra has Channing."

They walked into the abandoned restaurant.

"Anyone want tamales?" Tate asked.

Bo ignored him and kept looking at Allison.

Allison, seemingly unconcerned, turned a chair over with her mind, dusted it with her mind, and when all the dust formed a cloud, she pushed the cloud to the other side of the room and sat down. Then she nodded to Bo.

"You do it."

"No thanks," Bo smiled and grabbed for a chair.

"Stop."

Bo froze at Tate's command, hand on the wooden chair back.

"You do what she said."

"I can't!"

"You knocked down a bridge when you wanted to.

"I had to! I'm still not good at doing things on my own."

"Better try or you never will. Can't never could."

"What?"

"If you say you can't you never will be able to do anything," he explained hastily.

When she just stared at him, threw his hands up into the air. "You want to help Channing or not? Do you want to be able to protect yourself or not?"

"I'm waiting for an answer."

She looked at Allison who was sitting comfortably, unconcerned, watching the exchange.

Allison crossed her arms over her chest and shrugged. "Faites ca."

"What?"

"Do it," she ordered, looking at the stacked chair next to her.

With a sigh, Bo concentrated and the chair flipped over and crashed to the ground, right side up.

Allison coughed. "Move the dust away!"

Bo closed her eyes and pushed the dust over to the far window.

"Go," Allison approved. "Sit."

Bo did so. "Now answer my question."

"Levitate yourself and the chair off the floor."

Bo stared over at Tate.

"Tate! Do something?"

He shook his head. "She's doing her job, Bo."

"She doesn't have a job!"

"Fine," he answered, "her unofficial job, then. Maybe you haven't noticed it, but Allison's been helping to get you to hone your creepy skills since she got here. Now, she's just upping the game, for your benefit. I have a feeling she ain't doin' it for her health."

Bo glared at him. While she was doing that, Allison was struck with a sudden idea, she grinned evily and decided it was the perfect idea.

First she shook Bo's chair, tilting it so that Bo nearly fell to the floor, she tilted it so quickly that Bo couldn't get out of the chair to make the motion stop, either.

"Quit it!"

Allison smiled. "Make me."

"I mean it, stop it!"

"I'm completely serious kid, you need to make me stop."

Bo closed her eyes and finally managed to push Allison, chair and all, backward a few feet. The surprise made Allison stop playing with Bo's chair, and the chair tilted back to the floor.

"That wasn't what I had in mind," she answered evenly, "but I'll take it."

"Now levitate yourself and your chair." Allison levated herself off her chair, then put her chin in her hand, ready to wait.

"Tell me what they're doing to Channing," Bo's voice was a growl and it came through barred teeth and with a narrow glare.

"Levitate first."

"Tell me!" Bo screamed.

With a look of annoyance, Allison levitated Bo and chair a good three feet into the air. Bo grabbed wildly for the bottom of the seat to steady herself.

"You better catch yourself," Allison warned, just before she released Bo and let her fall.

The chair made a crash as it hit the floor and Bo grunted from the impact.

"What'd you do that for?"

"To help you."

Tate grinned and nodded, impressed with the kid's teaching methods. If she kept this up, Bo could be ready to take on the world, if only to get Allison to stop annoying her.

He laughed aloud. "This is like Rocky, pyschic style."

Bo glared at him, not finding this funny. She looked at Allison, still hovering in the air and opened her mouth, but Allison pointed at her, stopping her before she spoke.

"Levitate," she ordered.

Bo's shoulders dropped in defeat as she realized that Allison wasn't going to stop. Finally closing her eyes, and gripping tight to the seat bottom to make it easier, Bo concentrated.

The room was silent. Tate was staring, silently rooting for her.

When Bo managed to get the chair and her feet a few inches off the floor, Allison opened her mouth to fulfil her end of the agreement when Tate held up his hand in a "stop" motion.

"Try to get a little higher," he encouraged her. After all, if someone didn't push for more, who knows where they'd end up.

When Bo was a full foot off the floor, Allison spoke.

"Channing's fine. They're not doing anything to her, they're not hurting her. She's just sitting in some room."

Bo gasped with effort and she and her chair dropped back down to the tiled floor.

"Thanks," she gasped.

Allison smiled and slowly floated herself down to her chair. "Anytime."

"Punch some holes in the wall."

"What?"

"You heard me. If Bo's gotta be flexing her creepy skill muscles, so do you."

"I don't need to practice!"

"You're gonna practice. If Bo's practcing, so are you."

"That's not fair! I don't need the practice."

Tate shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe not, but you better make damn sure of that. And aside from that, you both have to do what I say."

He placed the second crate of bricks on the floor at Bo's feet.

Allison and Bo stared at him in indignation.

"What are you gonna do?" They demanded in unison.

"I'm gonna make sure you do it."

Allison gave him a look that said clearer than words, Oh really? Do you really want to test me on that? She was craving a fight, having learned that killing her rapists didn't make any of the anger or hurt go away. It did save a lot of other children, and allow Allison to feel safer, knowing they were no longer around, but the anger? The pain and memories, all that remained unchanged. And that made her, although feel safer, very very angry.

"Don't you look at me like that, kid. You don't threaten adults, and you look at me like that again you'll be looking at the ground next."

Allison glared harder, made a little growling sound, and turned away. Bo looked at her when her eyes lit up.

"No!" She yelled out, eyes wide in horror, reading her friend perfectly. But it was too late. Tate flew backwards and through the back wall of the restaurant.

Bo looked at the hole in the wall, the dust rising into the air, and the building next door, as she heard Tate swearing. Then she looked back at Allison, aghast.

Allison was the picture of innocence. "He said he wanted me to practice punching holes through the walls. He didn't say with what."

Bo winced. "You're gonna get it."

"You," Tate stood up, framed by the hole in the wall, and threw a brick at Bo's feet. "I want you to start lifting and lowering that brick, slow, then fast as you can. Go!"

Bo did this easily enough, and Tate looked at Allison. "You do that again, I swear to you it'll be the last thing you do."

Allison kept her thought in her head, but knew and knew that he knew there was no threat he could make to her that he'd ever be able to carry out.

"Just for that," Tate announced as he climbed through what was now a hole in the brick wall, and back into the building, "you're gonna give me fifty. But not before you put every single brick back in place."

He nodded to the milk crates full of bricks. "Lift both those crates in the air, until they're as high up as I am tall, then lower them back down, but don't let them touch the floor."

"What? That's insane!"

"Now it's 75."

"Bo!"

Bo lifted her gaze from a brick and shrugged at her.

"Do you wanna make it 200? Cuz I can keep this going."

Allison let out a loud sigh of frustration, thew herself back onto her chair, crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the crates. Then she glared at Tate.

Almost instantly, the wall was whole again.

"Now the crates." Tate crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Allison, waiting.

"Even Skouras wasn't this mean," she grumbled. "No wait, he was."

Suddenly the bricks and the crate flew up into the air, the bricks flying out in all directions like an explosion of confetti.

"Crap," she hissed.

Thought I'd uploaded this chapter. Have been sick all week so maybe that's why.


	27. Chapter 27

I got tired of waiting for another episode to find out what happened to Channing, so I made this up.

"I wanna go, too!"

"No," Bo turned on Allison and for a moment it was as if she were the older.

"You have to stay here. Stay focused on Channing. You're the only one that can help her if she gets hurt."

Allison's countance darkened with rejection, but she knew what Bo said was true.

She looked at Tate as an appeal.

"I could just kill him," she offered.

"What?"

"You realize that if I killed Skouras all this would be over, right? If he was dead, and the other crazy people, we wouldn't have to keep hiding. You realize that right? I could end this all right now, and we'd all be safe. You, me, Bo, all of us."

Tate looked at her, her grey eyes were a hazel green now, and they stood out from her white face.

"Triple homicide," he said the name gently, "you can't go around killing people. Er, you can't go around killing more people."

She shrugged. "Why not? No one but you guys knows I killed those boys anyway. And you could never ever prove I did."

"That's not the point." Tate was stalling for time trying to think of something to say. He knew Allison was right, and he couldn't deny he'd had the same thought. Just kill all those bastards and be done with it. But something in Milton Winter had him hold to the idea of not killing them.

Allison's eyes widened the way a child's does when they are begging for something that they want. "Please? Just let me kill them-"

"Them? So, now it's more than one?"

Allison sighed in exasperation. "Quit stalling. Just let me do my thing and this can all be over."

It was tempting.

"You let Bo do what she wants!" Allison's voice was a plaintive whine, the whine of a sibling who feels an unjust world of parent favortism of children.

"Bo doesn't want to kill people," he countered.

"You'll track down some people in a car wreck for her, but you won't let me do one thing!"

He looked her dead in the eye. "Don't try that thing with me. That whiny annoying thing kids do. I'm not going to cave. You can't go killing people."

"But they kill people all the time!" She wielded.

Bo looked surprised. "How do you know that?" She whispered.

Allison ignored her.

"This would just even the playing field," she looked at Tate, biting her lower lip, trying to get him to see her point.

"You'd obliterate the playing field if you had your way."

She just looked at him. There was nothing she could say to that.

"Just let me kill one person," she pleaded. "Just one," she offered it as a compromise.

Tate burst out laughing at the insanity of it all.

"I can't believe I'm hearing this! I can't believe this is actually a conversation!"

He shook his head and leaned down closer to Allison's height still laughing. "No," he shook his head again, "No way."

Her eyes turned dark again and she shoved him away with both hands.

"I hate you," she growled.

"That's fine."

"Channing would let me," she insisted.

"Well, Channing's not here, is she?"

That made her even angrier.

Bo was pulling at Tate's sleeve. "Come on," she tugged, moving toward the door. "We have to help them."

"See? You always let Bo do what she wants. You let her help people, but you won't let me help us!"

She had a point, sort of.

"Look," he called back at the doorway, holding Bo by her sleeve now as she tugged to get onto the sidewalk, "you just wait until Milton gets back. You talk to him about killing people. And don't you do anything until we get back."

He headed out the door, Bo running ahead, leaving Allison alone in the empty building.

Not to lose the last word, Allison quickly ran upstairs to the second floor to the window overlooking the street. With effort she pushed the window open, and leaned out, seeing Tate's walking down the street after Bo.

"You're trying to pacify me!" She yelled.

Tate stopped in his tracks, then turned around and looked up to see Allison's curls blowing in the wind, her body half out the window.

"It's not going to work."

Tate pointed up at her. "You do what I said. You stay there and wait for us. You don't do anything."

"Tate, come on!" Bo's voice carried from the next block .

"You let Bo do anything she wants, and you don't let me do anything!" She yelled.

"You're not my kid!" He yelled back with the only thing that came to mind.

"That's favortism!" She screamed.

Tate held up both hands. "That's life, kid!"

He heard her scream with rage, then heard the window slam shut.

Hours later, after Bo had accomplished her goal of saving her new friend's life, Allison was awoken by hands shaking her.

"What?" She grumbled.

"Channing!" Bo's scream made her wince. It was Milton Winter shaking her, and looking where Bo had sprung and run to, she could see why.

"You're the only one that can help her," Milton spoke.

In her pajamas which Channing had picked for her, Allison walked over to Channing, who was lying on the floor of the room, bleeding.

"Thought about taking her to a hospital, but realized that just wasn't an option for us."

"Fix her!" Bo screamed. "Help her!"

Channing's sweatshirt was soaked through with blood. Allison's tiny fingers pushed the fabric up, exposing the woman's skin, slick with dark and bright free flowing blood.

Allison was stunned and just stared open mouthed for a moment, before covering her mouth and running behind to bar to vomit.

"Your miracle worker doctor is afraid of blood," Tate muttered, taking it upon himself to try to stifle the blood flow with a t-shirt.

"Miss Allison," Milton called, his voice forced calm, "come back here and help Miss Channing."

Reluctantly Allison stood by him, staring down at Channing, but clearly not wanting to be there, or help. "This is what you do," Milton said as if he knew it.

When Allison closed her eyes and very reluctantly put her palm over Channing's wound, Bo's world disappeared.

Instead of Channing and Milton and Tate in front of her there was only darkness. Darkness and sound.

She heard a lisping voice singing, but couldn't see anything.

_"Womin, Womin 'tay away, Womin, Womin hide no pway."_

A woman's voice came out of the darkness then , with words Bo couldn't understand.

"Tres bien, cherie! Ton anglais est plus bien! Je suis trop fiere de toi!"

"Now," the woman's voice spoke English, "come out! Where are you? Let me see!"

Bo saw a toddler with short blond curls sitting on the floor then, with a woman now in shadow. Then she felt panic as she heard but didn't understand,

"Nous allons! Il n'y a pas de temps. C'est neccesarie de departe maintnaut. Prennez-elle!"

The woman, who Bo could see fully now, picked up the blond haired toddler, holding her tightly.

The strange woman began to hum the song the child had sung, and suddenly the little girl vanished from view. All Bo could see was a woman and a man running. Then Bo felt the sensation of falling, and everything was dark again.

Allison had been having a lot of nightmares lately, and Bo wondered if this was part of the reason why.

Bo blinked and saw in front of her Allison kneeling next to Channing, pushing her curls back from her face with a blood covered hand.

"That's enough," Milton's deep voice was gruff in approval.

"Her pulse is strong again," he finished.

Bo sighed in relief and smiled.

Allison simply asked, "Can I go back to bed now?"

Translation: "Very good, your English is much better, I'm so proud of you." And, "We're going. There isn't time, we have to leave now. Take her!"


	28. Chapter 28

"Mister Tate," Milton Winter spoke his name as he entered the second floor of the building where he Bo, and Allison were currently holding residence.

Tate looked up from the bag he was unpacking, seeing Allison and Bo at the far end of the room, still engaged in their play, then his eyes settled on Winter, still walking towards him.

He sat down on the rolling cabinet next to his bed. "What's up, Winter?"

He saw Winter glance over at Bo, who looked up at him, beamed and waved from her play place. Tate couldn't deny he still felt jealous of their relationship.

Winter looked back at him and asked, "Mister Tate, do you by any chance recall Nina's middle name?" He asked. "Did she have a middle name?"

Lines appeared on the man's forehead.

But Tate nodded. "Alice," he answered quickly, not having difficulty remembering, "her middle name was Alice."

Milton slowly nodded as if understanding something for the first time.

Winter just looked at him, and without saying anything else, turned and walked over to where the children were playing.

Watching them, he hoped they wouldn't decide to devulge the new game they'd devised, or at least, not the embarrassing cat-and-mouse turn of events it had resulted in.

It started out harmless enough, and Tate had judged it a good way for Bo to hone her skills.

_"Let's play a game!" Allison announced._

_"Okay, what?"_

_"It's called..." Allison looked upward trying to think of a name. Then she moved and grabbed a brick from the floor- the crates of bricks having become a new staple of each location, much as their beds were._

_"Let's Throw a Brick!" She announced with a nod, then hurled the brick at Bo._

_Bo screamed and jumped out of the way. The brick fell to the floor and broke._

_Allison sighed with annoyance. "You're supposed to catch it!"_

_"That'd break my hand!"_

_Allison rolled her eyes, seeming more like a sullen teenager than a child. "You don't catch it with your hand," she answered, aggravated._

_"You threw it with your hand," Bo objected to this oversight._

_"Just because," she explained. "But you really throw it and catch it with your brain."_

_Bo's brown eyes narrowed. "You coulda said that."_

_Allison shrugged. "I thought it was obvious."_

_"Obviously not."_

_Allison picked up another brick from the crate, this time with her mind, and threw it over to Bo. Tate watched the brick arc up and go down. Bo stopped its motion towards her, but then to brick fell to the floor._

_"Stop it!" Allison yelled. "Don't let it touch the floor!"_

_Bo looked down and stopped the brick inches from the floor._

_"Now, pick it up and throw it back."_

_The brick rose easily up into the air, then flew at Allison._

_"Shit!" Allison screamed and jumped out of the way._

_"I didn't mean throw it at me like you're gonna kill me!"_

_"Sorry," Bo answered as that brick too fell to the floor and broke._

_Tate stood up from where he'd been sitting._

_"I think I have a solution." Pulling a third crate out, this one full of sports equipment and random toys, he selected an old velcro dart board with three velcro balls attached to it, and three soft red foam balls._

_"You need to work on force and aim," he told Bo, as he set the velcro board against the wall, detached it's playing pieces and walked back to Bo._

_"The goal is to get each one of these balls to land on the board, preferably on the red bulls' eye in the middle." In demonstration he threw each of the balls toward the board, landing each one securely on it._

_"Give it a try."_

_But when Bo moved to walk to get the balls back, Tate held out a hand. "No, do it from here."_

_Bo managed to pull velcroed balls from the board easily enough, but the board fell down as she did so._

_"Pick it up."_

_Bo pushed the board back up, the three balls hovering in the air._

_"Good. Now bring the balls back here."_

_Carefully Bo carried them backwards until they were floating at her eye level._

_"Good!" He smiled at her. "Now, pick one and throw it, but pick where you want it to land, first."_

_"On the 20," she answered._

_"Okay," he nodded. "Try to get it there."_

_Allison watched with interest. When Bo was taking her second turn, Tate throwing with his hands, Bo with her brain, Tate grabbed a football from the crate and tossed it to Allison._

_"Now, I know you don't need any practice with aim or force- but it wouldn't hurt you to work out your body. Throw this football to the wall-with your hands."_

_He watched her with some interest, figuring she'd throw like a typical girl, and he'd have to teach her how to throw. But to his surprise, she threw the football in a perfect spiral. It was far from reaching the wall, however, and spiralled down half way._

_"Keep working on it, and switch hands, you want each arm to have as much strength and control as the other."_

_Happy to be included in the activity, Allison promptly did as told, while Bo continued with the velcro dart board._

_When Bo had moved on to target practice with a brick, successfully landing the brick where she intended it, Tate let her go back to playing catch with Allison._

_It wasn't long before they were throwing an entire crate of bricks back and forth._

_Tate figured his job done and began to drift off. He faintly heard Bo wonder, "What else can we throw?" just as he fell asleep in his chair._

_He awoke with a start when he felt himself pulled upward._

_"Hey!"_

_Bo and Allison were feet below him. Tate was floating level with the top of the indoor building sign._

_"Put me down."_

_Allison and Bo exchanged smiles and giggled. Tate felt himself floating sideways, then back again._

_"Now I know what mice feel like," he muttered._

_"Put me down, right now! Right now kid, I am not joking!"_

_Even though they were both staring up at him and laughing with glee, not malice, it was Allison that Tate directed his glare at._

_"Right," he spoke slowly and sternly, "now."_

_Allison screamed at the same moment Tate yelled, "Shit!"_

_Allison held up both hands in a stop motion, and Tate stopped falling sideways. It was clear that Bo had relinquished her part in this game without warning, and much like someone getting off a tetter-totter without warning, had a similar effect._

_"You shouldn't swear Tate," Bo reproached him._

_"You practically dropped me," he answered her scolding stare._

_"And you could have warned me," Allison looked at Bo, while lowering Tate back down to the floor._

_"Great," he looked at both of them, "now no more playing catch with me- or any other people," he added hastily._

_Both girls shrugged, bored with their new game and went to play with their crate of toys at the other side of the room. Allison grabbed for her Godzilla and Barbie dolls, while Bo picked out another turtle and retreived Stanley._

They were engrossed in their play when Milton Winter entered the room, pretty much where they were at now.

"Die! Die! Die!" Allison yelled. Looking over at her she was making the Godzilla crush cardboard buildings and plastic people.

Most of Allison's play with the toys involved death, a lot of chasing people around and saying die, and just general killing things. Sometimes the good guys attacked the bad guys and killed them, and sometimes the bad guys (at least Tate assumed) attacked the good guys and killed them. But one thing was certain in Allison's pretend world- if she was playing someone was going to get killed.

Tate was just grateful she only killed toys now.


	29. Chapter 29

Allison looked up from crushing paper Skouras'.

She saw Milton Winter sitting in a chair, legs crossed, hands linked behind his head, smiling. Staring at them, no, staring at her and smiling.

Allison looked at him like he was nuts, then gave him a look meant to convey, stop staring at me, then went back to stomping fake people to death.

_"Give a little of my heart,"_

Bo sang softly as she rocked Stanley in her lap.

"Die muthafucka, die!" Allison crowed, then cackled with laughter as her Godzilla stomped a Ken doll into the ground.

She was still laughing when Tate hollered from across the room, "Watch that language, kid! You're a regular cuss-mouth!"

Allison grinned brightly at him. "Takes one to know one," she answered sweetly.

Tate snorted, shook his head, and giving the matter up as hopeless, he went back to playing Gin with Channing. Glancing at her, he saw her laughing at him with her eyes, a smirk on her face.

"Don't even say it," he grumbled.

Channing laughed aloud again and slapped down her cards.

"Gin!"

Allison looked up at Channing's shout. Her eyes fell on Winter again. He was still looking her way, and when he saw her looking at him, he grinned again. Allison stared right back at him, trying to figure out why he kept staring at her and grinning like a freak.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" She whispered the words softly to Bo, eyes still glued on Milton Winter.

"Whatd'ya mean?" Bo looked up from Stanley and saw her friend staring at Milton.

"He won't quit smiling at me."

"What's wrong with that?"

"He keeps smiling."

"So?"

"It's freakin' me out. That's not normal," she answered. "There's gotta be something wrong with him."

"No, there's not!" Bo rolled her eyes and shook her head at Allison's ideas.

"He's just happy," she added.

Allison rolled her eyes in return, put a finger in her mouth and made gagging noises.

"You people are all like a permanent sweet shop."

"Huh?"

"Sickeningly sweet," she answered.

"There's nothing wrong with being happy."

"Sure there is, it isn't normal."

Bo went back to tending Stanley. When Allison made a sound of disgust, Bo screamed for Tate.

"What?"

He jumped up from his second game and moved towards the girls on the floor.

Bo pointed to Allison.

"He's not like that!" She screamed, hitting Allison on the head.

"What's wrong?" Tate asked as he knelt down on the floor by Bo.

"She's thinking disgusting things about Milton!" She yelled.

"No, I'm not!" Allison yelled back. "He's the one thinking gross things!"

"No he isn't!"

"Sure he is! Why else would he keep staring at me and smiling? He's a pervert!" Allison nodded her head with certainty.

Tate looked at Winter and laughed aloud.

"Well he ain't smilin' now," he kept laughing at the idea of Milton Winter being a pedophile.

Allison looked back at the man. Tate was right. Now the look of disgust was on Winter's face, not hers.

"Well, good." Meaning, she approved that he'd finally been given a reason to stop smiling, not that she believed he wasn't a pedophile, or wasn't somehow a danger to Bo.

"Trust me kid, I've seen more than my share of child molesters in jail, and he's definitely not one."

Allison shook her head, not buying it. "I don't trust him," she answered. "Why else would he be staring at me? And why else would he be smiling all the time?"

Tate shrugged. "Some people are just happy."

Allison made a face.

"I know," he answered her silent opinion, "it's weird to people like us."

"THey're the weird ones," Allison answered, pushing herself up from the floor, but meaning Bo and Milton. Not wanting to be near either of them she kept walking back to her room.

"Miss Allison."

Allison stopped and turned around.

"I'd like to see if you can push a hole through that brick wall there," Winter pointed to the far wall of the building.

Allison looked at him wonderingly, then shrugged and looked at the back wall. Instantly it exploded outward. Allison held all the bricks in the air as if to prove her point, then like sucking up liquid through a straw, she sucked the bricks back into place.

Winter nodded, smiling.

"Now, can you make that electric forcefield I was told about?"

Immediately Allison made an electric field that held her and Bo inside and kept Milton out.

Channing stood up from her seat, picked up a handful of cards and announced before she did anything, "This is just to see what will happen."

Then she tossed half the deck at the forcefield. There was a crackling noise, then the cards bounced off the invisible barrier, in flames, some already burnt and shriveled black.

"Wow," Channing stared at them.

"All right," Tate waved a hand in the air, " that's enough demonstration. Force-field down, kid."

With a shrug Allison dropped the field.

"So, if someone outside touched that..." Bo began.

"They'd be electrocuted," Channing answered her.

"Not all the way," Allison answered.

Milton Winter turned to Tate then. "Mister Tate, I'd like you to take Miss Allison here. There's an empty auto store about five blocks away from here. Repeat this same experiment with her there."

Used to chauffering kids around by now, Tate simply grabbed Allison by the shoulder and led her to the door.

"Wait a minute!" Allison stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"What about Bo?"

"Miss Bo is staying here," Winter answered.

"Uh uh, no way," Allison's shoulders rose up.

"I don't want her alone with you," her eyes were dark, almost black and fierce.

Channing carefully sat down on the floor where Bo had resettled herself. "She won't be alone, I'll be here with her."

Allison turned her head and looked at Channing from the corner of her eye, her lips pursed as she weighed her options.

"Fine," she answered. "But," she warned, "Don't leave her alone with him." She looked pointedly at Winter.

Channing shrugged, understanding Allison's feelings. "Fine."

Tate and Allison gone, Bo retrieved her paper and coloring mediums from their box and carried them over to the table Channing and Tate had been using for their card game. In minutes she was engrossed in her creation, legs kicking absently, humming as she worked.

_"Roman, Roman stay away,_

_Roman, Roman, hide no play._

_Can't see me,_

_I don't speak_

_No one can find me."_

Channing and Winter looked at the developing drawing over Bo's shoulder.

Miss Bo, what is that song?"

Not looking up from her new piece of art work, Bo shrugged. "I dunno. I just heard it once."

"Heard it where?"

Bo simply shrugged again, engrossed in her drawing.

"Is that Orchestra?" Channing whispered to Milton.

Milton shook his head. "No. It looks like Orchestra, but it isn't. There are some differences."

"What else would it be? It looks like an aerial view of Orchestra."

To settle the question, Milton asked, "Bo, is that Orchestra?"

"No," she answered.

"Do you know what that place is?" He prodded.

She shook her head, unconcerned, continuing to color in the trees. "No. It's just a place I saw once."

Milton nodded knowingly. "I see."

Bo kept swinging her legs, focused only on her drawing, and nothing more.

_"No one can find me."_ She sang softly. Then began again at the beginning humming the rest of the song.

:( Where IS everyone? I feel lonely with no one reading. :(


	30. Chapter 30

When Allison and Tate came back, Tate made a bee-line for the crate of practice toys, and the crate of bricks.

Allison however, froze in place, staring at Bo.

Bo was still at the table, this time drawing a picture of Stanley. Not hearing them re-enter the building, Bo started her song over again, oblivious to anything or anyone.

_"Roman, Roman stay away,_

_Roman, Roman, hide no play,_

_Can't see me,_

_I don't speak,_

_No one can find me."_

There was a shriek of rage and in a moment Allison flew at Bo, knocking her, chair and all to the floor.

"Shut up!" She screamed, blind with rage, punching and kicking Bo with all her might. "That's none of your business! None of your business! Who told you to sing that? That's not your song!" At "not your song" her scream intensified in volume and verbal possession.

Tate dragged Allison off Bo, but she was still kicking and screaming.

"You tell her to get out of my business! She's got no right reading my mind!"

Bo scrambled to her feet.

"I didn't!" She screamed back.

"If you ever say one word of that again I'm gonna kill you!" She screamed.

Blindsided with shock and confusion, Bo just stared at Allison.

"Chill out, kid!" Tate ordered, admittedly struggling to keep Allison's flailing arms and legs from stricking him, or losing his grip and letting her lose on Bo.

"Tell her she can't!" Allison yelled. "Tell her she can't ever say any of that crap again!" She glared at Bo. "I hate you!" She shrieked. "I'll hate you for the rest of my life!"

Bo had never seen anyone with so much hatred before.

"Okay," Tate answered back, "Bo, considering Allison here would probably beat you to a bloody pulp if you sang that weird song again, I'd say you just shouldn't sing it again- ever. Try getting another song stuck in your head."

"And you," he let Allison go with a shake and shove towards the toy crate, deciding the entire matter completely closed,

"You carry this one," he kicked the toy crate at her, "and you help me carry this crate, without being obvious," he added. "No way am I carrying this thing five blocks."

He bent down and hoisted the crate up, then looked at Allison. She sighed, and mentally helped him carry the weight.

"What happened in the other building?" Winter asked, though there was a look of amusement in his eyes, as if he already knew the answer. He also seemed entirely unbothered that Allison had just attacked Bo.

"She couldn't do it," he answered. "Well, she could do the forcefield thing, but barely made a dent in the wall."

Milton chuckled, and he grinned happily, nodding. "I thought not."

"What is wrong with him?" Allison hissed, looking at Milton Winter as if he were pyschotic.

"Now he's happy about bad things."

"Yeah," Tate looked sidelong at Milton and nodded, "that is kinda weird."

"Miss Allison," Milton Winter pulled a chair out from the table and faced it north, "While you do need to practice your powers sans Bo-

"That means without!" Allison's eyes lit up with recognition and excitement and she yelled the fact, instead of stating it, as intended.

Milton smiled at her and continued, as if uninterrupted, "I have, we have, another task that we need you to do."

Tate immediately put down the crate of bricks.

When Allison looked at him dubiously he spoke again.

"You told Mister Tate that you wanted to kill Dr. Roman Skouras?"

Instantly her eyes widened and shone with a glee that was disturbing.

"Yeah!" She agreed.

"Instead, I need you to do your seek and find thing."

At her confused look, he added, "The way that you found your orphanage from a hundred miles away and were able to start a fire in a single room."

"Oh."

"I do not want you to kill Dr. Skouras."

Allison's entire body slacked and she looked at Milton as if he'd taken her ice cream cone and fed it to a dog.

"We, and you in fact, need to find the computer center inside of Orchestra and destroy it."

Allison sighed, completely unenthused.

"Orchestra no longer has the ability to track Bo, but they can track you. Dr Skouras can find you, unless you destroy their computer system."

A shudder went through Allison's entire body and goosebumps appeared all over her exposed skin.

"Holy crap kid!" Tate stared at her.

"I see you're motivated," Channing spoke, leading Allison to the chair.

"Miss Channing, Bo, I need you both to show Miss Allison Orchestra."

Allison looked at Bo, and immediately was able to see everything that Bo knew of Orchestra. As it didn't help her much, she looked to Channing instead. Reading her mind was easy. Channing had more of the information that Allison needed, what the entire building and campus looked like, where rooms were.

"This," Channing held out a tablet with a map, "is a map that shows where we are right now, and takes you to around the area that Orchestra is located. It's top-secret, so its physical address doesn't show up, but it is directly in the middle of this forested area right here," Channing pointed to the mass of green.

That was helpful. Closing her eyes, Allison was able to mentally follow the map turn by turn.

"I'm there," she announced.

"What do you see?" Milton asked, his voice low.

"It's the outside, there's all these buildings."

"Go to the building in the middle, go in through the front door. Miss Channing can direct you from there."

Bo shrugged and thought that was nonsense. "Just look for the room full of computers."

Allison sat still in the chair, eyes closed as if sleeping though class. Suddenly her entire body tensed, she gasped aloud, and seemed to freeze in place.

"What's wrong?" Tate whispered, directing the question to Bo.

Bo's mouth and eyes were wide open, as if she were seeing what Allison saw.

"It's SKouras," she whispered.

Muscles were sticking up from Allison's boney shoulders like cords.

"You cannot kill him," Tate reminded her.

"Miss Allison," Milton's tone was that of warning. "Stay here. Do not show yourself. Do not go there. Stay invisible and stay here."

Allison was shaking, and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"What's the matter now?" Tate asked.

Bo looked at her, and realized she was shaking herself. "She's..." Bo paused, getting a flurry of emotions from Allison, before settling on one, "scared," she finished.

Scared enough to stop, Tate realized, and put a hand to the kid's shoulder. "It's okay, Skouras can't hurt you."

His hand on her, Tate could feel just how hard Allison was shaking. He realized the emotion of fear didn't go deep enough.

"She's about to have a nervous break-down," he announced.

"Go around him," Channing hissed, as if she could see him as well. "Just go around him, ignore him."

The four of them watched Allison's head turn to the left, and she was looking with eyes closed, at Tate. Obviously, the invisble part of Allison was watching Skouras walk past her, and continuing to watch him.

"Allison, we don't have much time. They might figure out you're there."

"Channing and Mister Tate, get us ready to move, now," Winter's voice was low and urgent. Quickly, they did as ordered, rushing around the space, gathering up all necessary items.

"There it is." Allison spoke. "It's a big room with glass doors."

"That's it," Channing called out, making her way to the door with an armload of stuff.

"There's a big circle and a dot where we are," she added.

"That's you. It's showing you using your powers. But, they probably believe it's showing Bo."

Allison shuddered again, as if a cold wind blew through her.

Not needing further instruction, Allison's eyes closed tighter, her muscles tensing.

"Bo, get Stanley," Milton whispered.

Allison yelled and pushed herself back in her chair, eyes still closed tight. After a moment she opened her eyes.

"It's done," she told Winter. Then she ran to the window, thrust it open and vomited.

In the car ride to the new safe location, Allison sobbed and sobbed and sobbed as if her heart was broken. Eventually she became so upset that Channing had to shoot her up with morphine to get her calmed down.

This is important for the next chapter. Go to youtube. Type in Jessica Affirmation or Little GIrl Pep Talk and watch the video. That is my model for Allison. Sort of. Anyways, go watch it for the next chapter, cuz it matters. It really will, actually.


	31. Chapter 31

"Wo-Min! Wo-Min!"

She screamed the name as the familiar figure walked past the window.

"Hey, you're not done yet!"

"Wo-Min!" She screamed, as the figure left her view. Ignoring the exasperating adult in front of her, she climbed down from the chair and scrambled to the door.

"Wo-Min!" She screamed again, desperate not to be left behind and ignored. She shoved at the metal door with both hands. It was heavy and solid and did not move. She tried again, pushing with both her hands and her brain until it opened.

She tumbled out into the hallway, the force of her tiny efforts sending her sprawling. She pushed herself up off the cold floor, and struggled to her feet. Then, bare feet paddling against the tiles, she made a toddling run forward.

"Unc Wo-Min!" She cried, following as fast as her baby feet could carry her, toward the black shoes and black pant legs in front of her. She saw their motion stop and was happy. The feet and legs turned around towards her. She smiled.

"Alice! There you are!" The legs bent down and she saw Roman Skoura's face shining with joy, arms outstretched to her.

She shrieked with happiness and ran head-long to collide with her favorite person.

Dr. Skouras grabbed her in his arms, then stood, and tossed her into the air, laughing aloud as Alice shrieked with joy at each toss.

After three tosses, Skouras simply cuddled her in his arms, and kissed the top of her head and cheek.

"Oh, how I've missed my little girl," he gushed.

Alice returned the kiss, with a wet kiss to Skouras' cheek.

"Comment va ma petite Alyssa?" He asked, using one of her many pet names.

Alice's tiny white teeth gleamed like pearls as she smiled. "Bien!" She shouted, although it really sounded more like "bean".

"I'm sorry, Dr. Skouras," she ran out of the room before we could finish her...game." A staff member in a white coat appeared in the hall, holding a tray of potted soil and seedlings. "She only finished half of it."

Skouras smiled. "It's psychology, Mr. Neilson. If you'd have told her to finish half, she'd have finished a fourth."

"So," the young man asked, "you wanted her to finish half so-"

"I told you she needed to finish the entire test."

Looking down all smiles at Alice, Roman looked with seriousness up at Neilson. "You made her speak English to you the whole time?"

"Yes, Dr. Skrouas," he nodded.

"Good." He nodded, then was back with attention to Alice. Seeing he wasn't wanted, Neilson retreated to the lab.

Alone, Skouras returned to his happy smiling self.

He looked at his favorite person in mock surprise. "Did you make those plants grow?"

Alice nodded so hard her curls bounced. "Oui!" She yelled.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Yesss," she nodded.

Skouras chuckled, and pulled on her curls. "That's my good 'lyssa. Your English is getting much better! You can understand me now, can't you?"

"Oui! Je te compris!"

"Yes?" Skouras prodded.

"Yesss," she answered.

Roman looked admiringly at her. "Your mother certainly knows how to accentuate your cuteness," he told her. "You get more adorable every day."

He smiled, and pulled the curls in one of her pig tails. The pig tails were no more than two tiny puffs on the side of Alice's head, but the candy pink pony tail holders, her sun blonde curls and cherub face and pink coveralls with bare pink feet made her the image of sweetness in Roman's eyes.

"You're definitely going to be a heart-breaker when you grow up," he smiled.

Skouras chuckled and tossed her into the air again. She squealed, then held herself aloft.

"That's my good girl, Alyssa," he praised her, holding out his hands. "Let go now."

Alice fell back down into his hands. Roman placed her on the floor, and holding her tiny hand in his own, walked with her to the outter grounds.

Bo Adams woke up with a start. She stared slack-jawed at Allison. Allison was still asleep, but tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?"

Bo looked across the way at Tate, also sitting up in bed. After the hellish car ride there, with Allison sobbing, and Bo screaming because Allison was in so much emotional pain it turned physical, Tate wasn't exactly resting easy.

"I think I know why Allison doesn't trust Milton," she answered.

Tate looked past her at Allison.

"Remember what we talked about? No more reading her mind or getting into her business. If she tells you something that's fine. But no using your spookies on her."

Bo nodded. "I didn't," she answered.

"Good. Go back to sleep then."

Bo lay back down and pulled the covers up over her, reminding herself to talk to Milton as soon as she woke up again.


	32. Chapter 32

Tate woke up smelling food.

For a moment he was still in a dream of last night, where Milton Winter had gone out of his way to almost bribe Allison for using her spookies to blow up the Orchestra computer system. Or, maybe he was just trying to get her to stop crying. Either way it ended up with a lot of junk food getting shoved her way, and Tate had a feeling if she'd have asked for a pony, Milton Winter would have given her one.

He'd kept glancing at Winter in the car.

"You know something," he insisted as their eyes met in the rearview mirror.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mister Tate," Milton answered, making the suffix Mr., as he usually did into the length of a full name.

"You know something about Allison." He didn't know how he knew, but he did. Maybe Bo wasn't the only one with spooky powers. "You know something about why this upset her," he finished.

"We are not going to have this conversation now, Mister Tate."

And that was it.

When he recognized the smell of McDonald's hashbrowns Tate woke up fully. He knew it was just himself, Bo and Allison, so Channing or Milton wouldn't be at their place with food.

Sitting up, he saw that Bo was sleeping, and Allison's side of the bed was empty. Made up, but empty. Looking around then he saw her sitting on a lone chair, holding a paper in her hands, a bag of McDonald's on the floor.

Tate walked the few paces that took him from his bed to the chair. She was holding one of Bo's pictures in her hand.

He nodded to it. "That Orchestra?"

Allison looked up at him. He was struck by how immensely sad she looked.

"No."

Tate stared at her. She sounded like Bo. Gone was any pretense of strength or unemotionalism. The kid looked upset and rattled, hardly any different from the night before.

"You okay?"

"No."

He shrugged and forced a laugh and smile. "At least you're honest."

She looked at him the way that Bo often looked at him, which was to say, she looked at him as if she weren't pleased with his humor.

"Just tryin' to help." He put a hand on her shoulder and immediately drew it back.

"You did one of your spooky things!"

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, you did! I touched you and it was like touching a doorknob in winter! You shocked me when I touched you."

Allison shrugged, and said without any conviction, "Maybe it's the weather." Her facade of toughness was back.

Putting down Bo's drawing, Allison picked up her bag of food, and began chowing down.

"No thanks, I don't want any," he grumbled at her lack of manners.

Allison shrugged again, not caring. As he watched her inhale the food, as she'd inhaled all the food Winter got her the night before, Tate realized this was just more evidence that he was right, and that she was lying. She'd definitely done one of her spooky things. She only ate like that when she'd worked her powers doing something really difficult. He was about to say something about this when he heard Bo cry out.

"Guess no one's resting easy today." He went over to Bo.

No idea what he was talking about, Allison simply went back to her food.

"Hey, wake up!"

Allison looked over as Bo woke, afraid and serious.

"You were having a nightmare."

Allison rolled her eyes. Duh.

Tate tried to soothe her, but Allison heard nothing soft or soothing in his voice.

He put a hand to Bo's shoulder, "That's a first, Bo Adams is speechless.

Bo just stared at Tate, eyes wide and dark.

"I'm gonna call the New York Times."

Allison rolled her eyes again and shook her head at Tate's lack of effective parenting skills. This was not comforting. A to brush off a kid's fears, she thought.

Looking at Bo, reading her, Allison sighed when she realized this meant more work for her, and stuffed another Egg McMuffin into her mouth as a temporary answer.

Finally seeming to realize just how scared Bo was, Tate's voice softened.

"Aw, come here!" He embraced Bo, who clung to him in silent pain. "It's okay," he rubbed her back. "It was just a nightmare. It's not real." He kissed her forehead. "Okay? Bad dream."

Allison shook her head. Not just a dream. She sighed again, knowing what Bo wanted, and hating it.

Why does she always think she had to help people? Isn't that what police and firefighters and superheros are for? Who said it was some ten year old kid's job to protect other people? Especially people who'd had them on the run for weeks? And, Allison noted with distaste, one in particular who'd pointed a gun in her direction?

"It's not just a dream," Bo answered Tate finally.

"Something bad's gonna happen. Something really bad."

Allison watched as Bo continued to explain, then faced the inevitable and got up to grab her own backpack. Whatever it was, it seemed like they could be at it for a while, or die in the attempt.

"Why do you want to save her?" She yelled across the room, putting her own supplies in her backpack. When she saw Bo put Stanley in her backpack as her only tool to ward off danger, she found it laughable. For herself, and for their own possible needs, Allison put the First Aid kit into her pack, concentrated, then put in 5 bags from McDonalds.

Bo didn't answer.

Allison rolled her eyes and followed after her. She might be crazy, but Allison knew you never wanted to let crazy people out in the world on their own.

She stood still when Bo rolled out the door, and Allison laughed as Tate rolled right after her. "We're like a clown car," she announced as she rolled out from under the building's garage door as well.

"Can we at least get some breakfast first?" Tate was asking.

"No," Bo answered.

"So are you gonna tell me what's gonna happen?"

"I told you, I don't know."

"Like Someone's gonna get killed?"

"Yes."

"Can you at least tell me who we're helping today?"

"There's a girl, and that woman from the FBI."

Tate pulled his black cap over his head. "Ferrel?"

When Bo nodded happily, Allison laughed aloud.

"The one who's been chasing us all over Kingdom Come trying to put me back on death row?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I'm not so sure I'm on board with this plan."

"Thank you!" Allison threw up a hand. "At least one of you has sense."

"Please."

"What's goin' on with you? Don't get all weepy on me. Where's my daughter and what did you do with her?"

"Not funny."

"What aren't you telling me? Who's gonna die?"

Bo just looked up at him, then walked away, leaving Tate and Allison standing in front of the building.

Allison looked up at him. "Who do ya think?" She grinned at him then, and handed him his bag of McDonald's breakfast.

He took it and looked at her. "This is supposed to make up for me getting killed trying to help that pyscho FBI chick?"

Allison shrugged. "It's what I've got."

Tate grabbed a breakfast burrito from his bag. "Good choice," he noted, taking a bite.

But Allison was already running after Bo, holding a second bag of food.

"Hey, Bo!" She yelled.

Tate shook his head watching them. "It's like Survivor, Spooky-Style," he muttered and followed after them.


	33. Chapter 33

Really quick. Wanna get through this all before tonight's episode.

"Allison did some sort of spooky this morning," he answered, on the phone reporting to Winter.

"What did she do?"

"I dunno. When I got up she was looking at a picture Bo made of some college campus, and she was static-y. Like she'd just done something. Wolfing down food too."

"I think she was just finishing up a job, Mister Tate."

"Whatever, she's weird. Even weirder now than before. She's vulnerable."

Even though they were on the phone Tate could hear Milton nodding. "She's remembering her past, Mister Tate," he answered.

"So, you do know what's going on with her."

"That's not for me to say."

"Well someone better start saying something. Between that kid's nightmares, and crying jags, something's gonna give."

"How's Bo?" Milton changed the subject.

"She's fine," he answered. "But she had one of her dream, vision things.

"That's a good thing, Mister Tate."

"No, I'm not waiting for you, come on!"

Allison began running back and forth between Tate and Bo, hearing parts of Tate's conversation, and parts of Bo's insistence of speed.

"Get this, one of the people we're runnin' to try to help, Agent Elizabeth Ferrel."

...

"I can't believe we're doing this," Allison spoke around the hashbrown in her mouth.

"You're not supposed to eat in the subway," Bo answered, having finished the breakfast Allison had procured for her.

"And you're not supposed to save crazy people who want to kill us," Allison answered. Tate smiled, but said nothing.

Allison watched listlessly as posts and street signs whizzed past.

"There's our stop!" Bo yelled.

"Thanks," Tate winced and covered his ears, "I'm sure the whole train needed to know that."

Allison chuckled.

Bo stepped off the train the moment the doors open, ready for action. Reluctantly, Tate followed after her, not wanting to let her out of his sight. Even more reluctantly, Allison followed after Tate.

She was thinking, This is stupid, when she heard a woman scream, "William Tate! On the ground, now!"

Allison's entire body tensed up. She hadn't noticed that Tate had stopped moving forward moments before. Now he was directly behind Allison, and facing her.

"We're here to help you!" Bo cried.

Terror enveloping her, Allison turned her head. Elizabeth Ferrel had a gun pointed at her- again.

"She's telling the truth, something bad's gonna happen."

"She's pointing a gun at me," Allison hissed.

"Just do what I say, and nothing bad will happen to anyone."

"She's still pointing a gun at me!" Allison cried.

"This isn't how it happened," Bo spoke softly, looking around.

Allison had started to cry. When Tate looked up at her shocked, she announced loudly,

"Everyone always wants to hurt me! They hunt me down like a dog!" The words were a screaming blubbery cry.

"She's not pointing the gun at you," Tate answered, embarrassed that she was losing her cool, and making such an obvious mistake.

"Yes she is!" She screamed and pointed at Ferrel, "she's pointing it at me right now!"

"Ferrel, you might wanna put that gun down," Tate looked at her. "You're freaking this one out."

Ferrel's eyebrows shot up. "So you've kidnapped another kid?"

"No," he answered. "But remember when Bo threw a car at you? This one here, that you're making cry, makes Bo look like an amateur. I'd put the gun down before _she_ hurts _you_."

"No way am I doing that," Ferrel answered.

"Then you're gonna be sorry."

Still sobbing, Allison's eyes were tracking Bo's now.

"It's a bomb," Bo announced, shocked.

"It's a bomb, we have to go!" She yelled, running toward the stairwell.

"Come on, run! We gotta go!" Bo screamed the command as Ferrel and her kid finally ran behind her with Tate.

Then everything went black.

"All right baby, you're okay. I'm gonna help you up."

"You okay?" She asked.

"We should be dead."

"Where's Allison?"

Bo glared at him. "She started running the minute she heard me say bomb. She didn't wait for me to say it five times before she ran away. She's smart."

Tate gave her a half smile. "So, she's pretty far ahead of us." He looked at the wall of rubble in front of them.

"She's okay," Bo answered his look. "She's asleep, actually."

"Sleeping? Sure she's not dead?"

Bo shook her head. "She's sleeping. She's exhausted. She used a lot of her powers today. She just used them to keep us safer. To keep heavy stuff from falling on us."

Then Bo remembered who else was there with them.

"Where are they?" Bo asked, worried that she hadn't saved the people they'd gone to save in the first place.

"Ferrell!" Tate shouted.

Ferrell was soon dug out of the rubble.

"Oh my god, Sasha!"

The girl was buried under a railing. Ferrel and Tate pushed it off her.

"Aren't you going to find your other kid?" Ferrel asked.

"She's fine. Bo says she's fine."

Agent Ferrel looked at him with confusion.

"A subway tunnel just collapsed on us, and you think she's fine?"

"She's gotten herself out of more scrapes than anyone I know," he answered. "Besides, Bo said she's fine. Sleeping, actually."

"Bo said."

"I trust her. You should too. She saved your life."

Eyes on Sasha, Bo announced quietly, "Her lips are turning blue."

Ferrel looked down. "She's not getting enough oxygen."

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"If it's what I think it is, no. Her airway will obstruct till she can't breathe at all."

"At all?" Bo stared, thinking that she had failed to save these people, and in fact done more harm than good.

"Here, help me turn her over."

"Bo, look away."

"I've seen things worse than this before," she answered.

Tate wondered what she'd seen worse than concious surgery, but answered, "Please, look away!"

"You sure about this?" He asked.

"No, I'm not, but I have to try."

When Sasha was breathing again, Tate told Bo, "Go find Allison."

"She's buried under rubble! Shouldn't you go?" Ferrel looked at Tate like he was nuts.

"She'll be fine."

Indeed, moments later a bleary eyed, blackened girl appeared next to Bo, carrying a blue backpack.

She stared at the three people.

"I'm tired," she announced, seemingly unaffected by the chaos.

Tate looked at her and realized she'd used her powers to keep the heaviest of the fallout from falling on them and killing them all.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Bo, can you girls sit with Sasha?"

"Sure," she smiled.

"Mom, she has your gun."

Ferrel looked, and indeed her gun was gone. The skinny blonde had it in her dusty hands, and was putting it in her backpack.

"Give it back." Ferrel used her mom voice and her cop voice.

Allison shook her head. "No," she answered as if chastising a child, "you pointed your gun at me, and now it's mine. I'm going to keep it until you can learn to stop pointing it at people."

"Pick your arguments Ferrel." Tate muttered. Already Allison was curling up next to Sasha, yawning.

Taking Ferrel by the elbow, he led her aside to talk.


	34. Chapter 34

Can't watch last week's episode any more on my computer. So...this is just from what I remember. Sorry! :( But I'll do my best.

Allison was going down the tunnel shaft at a rapid pace. It almost seemed like she was trying to run away from them. Ferrel had taken her gun back from Allison's backpack while she slept, but Ferrel didn't know that Allison now had it back in her possession. Bo knew it was only a matter of time before Allison fell asleep again, leaving her bag unguarded, and Ferrel would get it back. It was like a big game of keep away.

"And after all this you still want to take Bo away from me," Tate continued his conversation with Ferrel.

"She's a ward of the Federal government, Mr. Tate," she answered.

"You'd send her back to Orchestra?" He demanded. "Even after seeing what they do to people?"

"I'm just doing my job."

Allison, who'd been either silent or sleeping most of the time, spoke up.

"You really think it's a good idea to take Bo away from her own family and lock her up in that Skouras jail?"

"What do you know about it?"

"More than you do, clearly. Unless you're just a completely heartless bitch."

"Hey!" Sasha yelled. "You don't talk about my mom like that!"

"It's okay sweetie," Ferrel smiled at her daughter, "I've heard a lot worse."

Allison gave her a snide look and smiled. "I"m sure you have agent Ferrel."

Bo laughed.

"I'm just doing my job sweetie."

"Yeah," Allison answered, "so were the Nazis. That doesn't make it right."

"It's not my-"

"And that," she finished, interrupting Ferrel, "is why I have your gun."

Ferrel checked and found her gun missing. "Damn it, Allison!"

Allison smiled at Bo behind her.

Ferrel was going to Allison to retrieve her gun when Tate held up a hand. "Pick your battles, Ferrel," he reminded her.

"Fine," she answered, knowing she's just take the gun back when the other child wasn't looking. No one had objected the last time she'd done so. It was clearly nothing more than a game to these people.

"And I'll be sure that you are returned to where-ever it is that you live, Allison."

Allison looked back at her and glared. "What you really mean is that you'll be dropping me off at Orchestra with Bo."

"You live at Orchestra, too?"

"No. But at this point it doesn't matter if I did, or if I have a family. Skouras wants us both, and Skouras always finds way to get what he wants."

"Dr. Skouras?"

"You think he's some sort of upstanding citizen, don't you?"

"I've seen his work," Ferrel answered.

"He shot Janice Channing, you know about that."

"That hasn't been confirmed," she answered, "he's only being held for questioning."

"If that's true, then you're both a liar and stupid."

"And what do you know about Skouras?"

"He and his people put electrodes on her head," she reference to Bo of course, "and turned them on," Allison announced. "They applied electric shocks to hurt her, to try to make her do what they wanted her to do- and when she didn't do it, they turned up the voltage."

When that got no response, Allison continued with more truths she knew about Roman Skouras.

"And, he's a murderer."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You certainly should be," she answered back, continuing now to lead the group, and getting as much distance from all of them as possible.

She called back loudly, "Roman Skouras shot my mother to death. Shot her in the back. Then he checked to see if she was dead. She wasn't quite, so he shot her in the face. That finally killed her."

Tate, Bo, and Ferrel stopped walking, and stared in shock at Allison's skinny silhouette.

Allison just kept walking.

"He wanted to kidnap me. My parents were trying to get me away. He killed my father too, but I did get away from him, Skouras that is."

"And Agent Ferrel, I was his prize pupil. I was everything he wanted in an operative. Everyone else he had, he tried to turn into me. And when they weren't like me, he did whatever it took to try to make them be. Most of them died."

Bo suddenly saw Allison as a three year old girl, her clothes dripping with blood, walking alone on a lonely dark highway.

She gulped and blinked hard, until she saw Tate and Allison up ahead.

Tate glanced at Bo. "Did you know about all this?"

Bo shook her head.


	35. Chapter 35

Remember when Allison destroyed the computer at Orchestra? Well...this was actually supposed to come right after that, but it got deleted. So...I'm putting it right here, so you can read it, cuz it's important. I'm shortening it cuz this chap is already long:

"That girl Danielle was in foster care too." Allison spoke in a whisper.

"She has a lot of the same powers I do," she added.

"She's dangerous. She hurts people. She's a lot like-" Allison stopped herself before she said "me", but could feel that everyone was thinking it.

"She isn't like me," she objected. "This Danielle hurts people and doesn't care who she hurts. She'll hurt people who haven't hurt her at all. She feels entitled to hurting people, anyone at all, to make up for the people who hurt her."

Allison felt Milton about to object to a flaw in her logic, and continued rapidly. "I hurt people who deserve to be hurt. Danielle is just plain dangerous because she doesn't discriminate. She'd hurt innocent people just because she can. I would never do that."

K- current chap.

As Milton Winter stood on the sidewalk waiting, he had plenty of time to think. He knew that his trio was out of danger, and in fact, once Allison gained her strength back, she could get them all out of there if needed.

All he'd been able to think about since kidnapping Skouras was the long conversation he'd had with his former best friend. The first thing Skouras had said to him?

"You have Alice."

It didn't surprise him.

"You mean Allison."

"No," Skouras shook his head, "I mean Alice. Sometimes we called her Alyssa or Lysa."

"Her name is Allison Cramer," Winter corrected him.

Skouras nodded. "After the Cramer Home for Children. Common practice, you know, naming children with no last names after the patron of their orphanage. And I'm sure that whoever found the child asked her name. And with a French accent and a three year old's lisp, Alice or Alyssa certainly would sound a lot like Allison."

Winter nodded.

"What's her last name, Roman?" He asked. "Those two girls are two similar for this all to be a coincidence. They have the same blood type-"

"So do a lot of people, Winter," Roman corrected him. "Don't go jumping to conclusions that aren't there."

Then Roman smiled. " To answer your question as to her proper name, it's customary for first born girls in a certain region of France to keep the mother's maiden name. Thus, Alice's full name happens to be Alice Nina Adams."

Winter thought on this and said aloud without realizing it, "Nina..."

"Is Alice's aunt," Skouras provided.

Milton smiled broadly. "Which makes Bo and Allison-"

"Alice."

"cousins!" Winter finished.

Winter took a seat at the table across from Skouras.

"Tell me, how did you find her?"

Skouras relished the story, and for a moment was willing to believe that Milton was nothing more and nothing less than his friend.

"This was before Orchestra," he began. "There was an article about a French family with a remarkable daughter. I researched and finally brought them over here to the States. It turned out the mother was a citizen, so that wasn't much of a problem."

Roman smiled, his face washed in the warmth of memory and love.

"Oh, Milton, she was wonderful. Beautiful. She was ten times what Bo is, and she looked just like a little Shirley Temple. A beautiful, bright child."

"She could control her powers from the moment she was born."

Milton thought about that and realized several things at that moment, but stayed quiet.

"Alice's father was a neuro-scientist in France, and had married or engaged to a woman in America who had telepathic and telekenetic abilities. She'd learned to control them, but her daughter never needed to learn. She was born knowing."

Skouras sighed and looked as if he were watching it all play out again. "Such a beautiful girl," he gushed. "And she worshiped me. I worshiped her. She was like the child I never had. We went everywhere together. She'd leave her parents to come follow me around the center, or sit on my lap during a meeting."

After a while of staying with us, we had more people at that time, I found we needed another facility. And that's when Natalie told me about her younger sister-"

"Nina," Milton smiled. "So that's it. That's how you knew you'd find her, and already knew all about her."

"They were estranged," Skouras answered him. "The two never really talked. Nina never knew Alice existed, or that her sister had married."

"But, Alice was the star, she always was. But Bo was always the mascot of Orchestra."

"And you made sure that no one from either program knew about the other," Milton nodded. "Culpable deniability."

"Something like that. It wasn't long after Bo was born that I lost Alice." He shook his head at the memory. "I had hoped that Bo would turn out to be like her cousin, but she wasn't. Bo is nothing compared to Alice."

Milton couldn't help beaming. "You should see them together, Roman. They are beautiful. Very different of course, Allison has had a terribly hard life, but they love each other. Allison protects Bo at all costs."

Roman smiled and nodded. "I would love to see them together. I've missed Alice more than words can say."

... ... ... ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

They'd stopped to rest in the only open area left. Sasha lay on her mother's lap while Tate tried to undo the metal grate above them. Allison had tried and failed to unlatch it, too exhausted by that morning's endeavors.

When Bo sat next to her, she asked,

"What were you doing this morning? How come you're so tired?"

Allison sighed. "I had to destroy the computers in the other place, too."

"Where you grew up?"

She nodded.

"I'm sorry," Bo whispered, and gave Allison a little hug.

"I found this in your backpack," Bo reached into her own bag and pulled out a stuffed butterfly.

Allison's eyes lit up and she snatched it from Bo's hand.

"We had to go through your bag after you fell asleep," she explained. "Sasha smelled the food you got for her and agent Ferrel, she said thank you, by the way."

"Where'd you get the toy?"

"It's mine!"

"I know," Bo answered. "You didn't have it before though, so I thought I'd ask."

"It was in my room. I got it this morning."

"When you went to Skouras' other place to find the computers?"

Allison nodded. "Symphonique. It's called Symphonique."

Bo laughed. "Symphony and Orchestra?" She laughed again.

Bo's face turned serious. "When you destroyed the computers at Orchestra, that's not all you did, is it?"

Allison shook her head. "I found that girl Danielle, from Channing's mind. I tried to warn her."

Tate interuppted any futher conversation.

"Okay, we can't stay here. We're gonna have to keep going."

Bo stood up. "I think I can help," she answered, smiling.

Bo lit the tunnel with a sparkling shining light that was as welcome as lights on a Christmas tree.

They'd begun walking again, but it didn't take long for another snippet of Allison's memory to flash before Bo's eyes. Or, in this case, her ears.

It was pitch dark. Bo heard the crunching of leaves, felt wind on her face. She heard someone gasping for air, and heard pounding feet.

"We only have to get to the street," a man's voice called from a distance.

"The car's gone!" Bo heard a woman's strong voice yell.

The man's voice had an accent.

"Whatever happens," she gasped, "just get Alice out of here. That's all that matters."

"You don't have to tell me that," the man answered. " I see what they do to those children."

There was a beam of light, headlights, Bo realized, coming through the darkness.

There was the sound of a slamming car door.

"You two are making a mistake."

Skouras' voice.

"Alice belongs here."

"Go screw yourself!"

"I'd hate to have to take her by force." Skouras' voice was calm, but Bo shuddered to hear it.

"We won't let you experiment on her! She's not a lab rat!"

"Natalie, I'm surprised at you. I adore Alice. I'd never let any harm come to her."

"Is that what you tell all your inmates, Dr. Skouras?"

"Let me remind you, Dr. Pierreson, "it was you and your wife's idea to come here with your child."

"We signed no contract to be your prisoners!"

"Prisoners," Skouras said this as if hurt. "This is your home."

"Natalie, go!"

In the darkness, Bo saw the woman turn and run, and could now see that she carried a bundle in her arms. The man ran after her.

"Natalie," Skouras kept his voice even, "Stop."

Bo felt terror in her body, panic. Then she heard a loud explosion and screams. Then she felt pain. There was darkness again.

"Alice, viens ici!" The man whispered.

"Take her," the woman cried. "Run!"

Bo felt the girl being picked up.

"Alice, hide, etes silent!" The command was weak.

There was another explosion, and Bo heard a child's scream.

Then there was the sound of footsteps, running, flashlight beams sweeping the leaf covered ground, and blood.

"Alice!" Skouras cried.

"Alice, where are you? Come out sweetie. Don't be scared, your Uncle Roman won't hurt you."

Suddenly Bo was looking down at the top of Skouras' head, watching men with flashlights encircle him.

"We can't find her anywhere."

"She has to be somewhere," he answered. "She can't dissapear."

Bo looked to her right and saw a little girl clinging to an upper branch, legs wrapped around the one she sat upon. When the flashlight beams went up into the tree, the little girl vanished from view.

"Are you crazy? She's three years old. _You_ couldn't climb these trees!"

The light went away.

Bo heard the little girl whispering to herself.

_"Wo-min, Wo-min, stay away,_

_Wo-min, Wo-min, hide don't play,_

_Can' see me,_

_I dow' speak,_

_No one kin fin me."_

When Bo could see her again and the men were gone, the little girl had fat tears running down her cheeks. She was sobbing, not because she understood her parents had just been killed, but because she had to obey her parents and hide from Skouras, but didn't want to.


	36. Chapter 36

_"You want to do more than that. You want to use them, you want to use them as breeders. To create more children like themselves." _

_"I can't believe you're being so coarse!" Roman looked at him with disdain. "I care about them, Milton." _

_"You did care about them," he corrected Skouras. " I believe at one point your ultruistic vision and dreams were true and honest and pure. Now though you've become blinded, driven to maddness. What would have happened if money weren't an object? If the United States government wasn't involved?" He shook his head. "They expect too much of this. They expect the impossible, the super human, the unhuman and inhumane," he emphasized._

_When Roman didn't respond Milton spoke again. _

_"You never denied that you wanted to use Bo and Allison simply to make more like them. Use them simply as baby machines, no matter their age or consent." _

_"Alice," Roman corrected. _

_Milton simply stared at him. Of all that all that needed correcting was the girl's name? Nothing else in his statement was seen as wrong?_

_Finally Roman answered. _

_"I'll trade you. You give me Alice back, and I will let you keep Bo. I'll call this entire thing, hunting for you all, off." _

_Milton was speechless. Compromise wasn't one of Roman's fall-backs. _

_"Milton, she is the closest thing I have to a daughter. I love her as one. You have Bo. Let me have Alice. Let me care for her."_

_"And you'd use her as a slave," he bit off each word._

All this came back to Milton Winter as he sat watching Allison and Bo argue.

"He's the closest thing I have to family! He loves me, I know he does! He's like my dad!"

Milton Winter wanted to pull Allison Cramer into his arms and hold her. It was painfully obvious that she was in pain, moreso by her increased effort to maintain a tough exterior. Every day she went back and forth between loving Skouras and hating him. But, she'd stopped making any of her toys kill one another.

They all pretended that she didn't wake up sobbing or screaming. For the first time in a long time, neither Milton or Channing left Tate, Bo and Allison to their own devices. As troubled as Allison was, more than one adult was needed, especially after what he'd been told by Bo and Tate, Roman killing Allison's parents.

When it came to speaking to Allison about her past, his first instinct was to speak to Bo, but instead Milton Winter turned to the only person who Allison could trust among them, as well as spoke her language and life experiences. He knew before he could speak to her of what he'd learned, or tell Allison that she was really Alice, he had to learn from her what she remembered. But...not before he ran it before the other adults first as a sounding-board.

William Tate laid it out as if it were all so simple.

"It's painful for her. She desperately wants to be loved. But love has proven to be dangerous for her. People she's loved have destroyed her existence. Then people she was taught to trust betrayed her, showed her she was unwanted and unloveable, she was cast aside. And now there's the chance of the only other person to truly love her coming back?

"He killed her parents! He'd kill you. He killed Nina."

"He's all she has. At least, as far as she knows."

He looked a question at him, then asked it aloud. "You haven't told her?"

Milton shook his head.

Tate sat down with a sigh, and spoke slowly. "When you are starving to death, you will eat anything. Parents eat their own children.

He knew Tate was speaking of Allison, Alice's, desperation in wanting a family, wanting love. Wanting the happiness and security that Bo'd assured him the little girl Alice had once known in abundance.

Milton voiced his thoughts then. "This little girl has grown up since then from a toddler starved for love and traumatized. She needs to, she must excuse Roman Skouras' behavior, the way a girl will excuse her incestuous father or brother- because she must in order to survive, in order to stay sane. She needs to separate the man she loved, her beloved Roman, from the man that murdered her parents. One moment she may hate him violently, the other she's inconsolable missing him, missing them, missing the life she had where she was happy and safe and unafraid. Roman Skouras murderer must be a separate person from the Roman Skouras that loves Allison, because they cannot be the same person- she'd go nuts. Now Roman Skouras is the only thing left that represents that, that knows that part of her past and is a part of her past. He's the only one she can talk to to reminise or learn things about herself. In that sense he is all she has left. Even you and Bo can't fill that void. Only Roman can."

Channing nodded. "But in order to go to him, she has to believe something other than the truth. In order to believe that Roman ever loved her or still does, she has to believe that it wasn't him who killed her parents. Maybe something made him do it. Maybe he didn't want to do it- she'd take anything, even the tiniest most fake apology because it's what she wants to believe more than anything. That Roman Skouras is sorry, that he would never hurt her. That's what she wants to believe."

"Like the brother you've looked up to and whose protected you all your life becoming your rapist- and yet he behaves the same as usual aside from that. So either you believe that your brother was always evil and you never saw it, or that there's one side of him that's evil, and the other is your beloved brother, or maybe the person you loved as your brother died and was replaced with a monster or there's something about you that makes him act this way. Because when love and abuse are intertwined, love becomes as twisted as reality until you don't know what's real any more. When people commit the unthinkable, there is no sane path anymore, there is no sense. Because nothing makes sense anymore. So, in that environment, in order to stay sane and exist within the insane that is abuse one must make excuses like that. Because otherwise the truth is that the person you love is a murderer, or a rapist, or something like that. Something unthinkable. So if you don't want to believe the truth, you can come up with other less painful options. Families of rapists do it all the time. Just ask any victim of incest."

"So," Tate spoke up again, "what you're both saying is that for Allison, she'd have to accept that the man she loves doesn't truly love her in return."

Channing gave him a sad smile. "And that," she answered, "Can take years. And lots and lots of therapy."

"But," Tate asked, "can you love and adore the man who murdered your parents in cold blood? No. So that means she'd have to stop loving the other other living person that she does love- and that's really hard. She'd had to mourn the loss of her parents and the loss of her "Uncle Roman."

"Wouldn't that make thinking about anything in her past really painful? Because anything about her past is going to make her think of her mother or father, which will make her think that they're dead, which will remind her that Roman murdered them, which will remind her that her Uncle Roman is a cold-blooded killer."

"Why do you think her brain has kept her past buried up until now? Her brain couldn't handle the truth," Channing answered.

-Okay guys, so I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, but only three of you are reading now? What happened to the rest of you? The dozen or so supposedly following this story? I want to hear from you! I hate having to drag the chapters out so much, but like I said I go by the reviews, and I wait as long as I can, because I don't know who's reading and who isn't. I want everyone to have a chance to check in so I know I can go on. Lemme know what you think of this chapter, okay?


	37. Chapter 37

"Where's Lyssa?"

Bright sunlight shone down on a field of green grass.

Natalie Adams was running through the grass, going from one tree to another that dotted the landscape.

"I don't see you anywhere!" She called out in a sing-song voice, running fast around each tree and circling out so that she missed no movement.

"She must have dissappeared!"

Shrill laughter rang out in answer.

Natalie laughed back. "Where are you,baby?"

Alice squealed with joy, and Natalie looked up. "Well you little stinker!" She cried. "I didn't think you'd go up!" Hands on hips and serious she spoke with stern seriousness.

"You'll break your neck. Get down from there."

"Mama, it be fun!"

"It is fun," she corrected. "And, right now, young lady."

Alice sighed, and reluctantly floated down to the grass below.

"That's better," her mother approved.

"Natalie!"

Alice turned round at the familiar voice. "Unc Wo-min!" She yelled and ran head-long forward simply intent on meeting her goal. Colliding in a jumble of arms and legs, Alice quickly found herself scooped from the ground and tossed into the air.

"Alice!" He laughed. "My little girl! I thought I might find you out here!"

Alice laughed until she choked herself. Skouras settled her on his hip, the brass clasps of her blue overalls meeting his shoulder, her blond curls just meeting his cheek.

"I thought you'd be working later, Dr. Skouras," Natalie addressed him as she walked in from the field.

"I am," he nodded, then fished a set of keys from his pocket. "Your husband is still walking me through the latest test subject results. We should be done some time this afternoon. "I thought you'd like to run to the store and do a bit of shopping for us, instead of being cooped up here all the time." he tossed the keys to her, and wasn't surprised when she caught them in mid air with her mind.

"Mostly groceries."

"Sure," she answered.

Skouras ran his hand over Alice's curls. "Would you like to come with me to work, Alice, and let Mama shop?"

Alice nodded, making her curls bounce.

"Would you mind, Natalie?"

"Of course not, Dr. Skouras," she smiled, now fingering the key set. "I'm sure it will make shopping easier."

Skouras smiled at her.

"Alice will be ready to rejoin you once you're back."

Natalie smiled, but Alice's face darkened. Her mom was lying, and she was very very worried. She didn't want her to be around Skouras.

_Be quiet, Alice. I'm sure your Uncle Roman won't let anything bad happen to you._

Her mother's feelings and thoughts confused and frightened Alice, but without another word, her mother turned away and headed for the driveway.

Alice watched and waved as her mother drove away in the car. Roman looked at her and asked,

"How would my Alice like some ice cream?"

All worry vanished, because yes Alice would like some ice cream.

Walking hand in hand down the faculty hall towards the kitchen, Alice looked up at Roman and asked,

"Where's the baby?" Although her word 'the' sounded more like a combination of 'za' and 'da'.

Skouras stopped still and looked down at Alice in surprise. "What baby, Alice?"

"The baby you think about. I wanna see the baby!"

Skouras smiled, both happy that Alice's mental probing was getting stronger and of who she was wanting to see.

"Do you want to go see the baby now?" He asked. "And we'll get ice cream later?"

Alice nodded. "Baby now! I wanna play with the baby!"

Roman grinned. "I can't say no to my Alice." They turned around and headed back down the hall. In minutes they were in the car and driving far away from Symphonique.

A half hour later, Roman Skouras pulled up and stopped at the entrance of Orchestra. Alice pushed her seat belt open and shoved the car door open, barely as Skouras turned off the car engine. She was out and running before Roman had gotten to her side of the car.

"Slow down, Alice!" He called. She stopped and waited for him, then grabbing his hand, she pulled him ahead as if she knew exactly where she was going. Not that it was difficult, Orchestra was designed in layout to be nearly identical to Symphonique.

Skouras allowed himself to be lead down hallways, until Alice finally stopped in a doorway at the far end of the east wing. The nursery for Bo was decorated almost exactly as her own nursery was. Alice spied the crib and ran forward.

"Baby!" She yelled.

Roman Skouras winced at the sound, and chuckled realizing that this child who was still little more than a baby herself had no idea about how to behave around them.

Alice froze in place when a man rose unexpectedly from the rocking chair by the window. Wide eyed and open-mouthed Alice stared at the tall dark man that stood in front of her, then quickly darted behind Skouras' legs.

"Roman, I didn't expect you back so soon." Winter's voice was soft.

Roman gave a half nod. "I took a little break," he excused.

"And who," Milton smiled at the figure clutching Skoura's pants legs and peering around them, "is this?"

"Ah, this is my niece," Skouras picked her up from the floor, "Alice."

Milton smiled at her.

"Alice wanted to see the baby."

Milton's smile grew wider at the mention of the bundle in his arms.

"Alice, this is Dr. Winter."

Alice's small face wrinkled in confusion. She looked out the window for a moment before announcing seriously, "It not snowing."

Milton laughed softly. "Your niece is very intelligent, Dr. Skouras."

Roman inclined his head. "Thank you, she is."

By now, Alice was nearly falling out of Skouras' arms trying to lean over to see the baby the other person was holding.

"Do you want to hold the baby, Alice?"

Alice held her arms out, and both adults laughed.

"Here," Skouras moved her over to the couch and sat her down. "Why don't you sit down and hold her?"

With Roman sitting next to Alice, Milton carefully lowered Bo onto Alice's lap, Roman holding Alice's arms in his own, supporting the baby more than she could.

"This is Bo," he told her.

"Baby!" Alice crowed happily, using her hands to unwrap the baby from it's blanket and play with the small hands that emerged.

"Be gentle, Alice," Milton cautioned.

"Baby, wake up! Let's play!"

Once the baby opened her eyes, Alice took that as affirmation and both tried to scoot off the couch and pull the baby along with her. When Alice stood on the floor and reached and tried to pull the baby towards her, Skouras stopped her.

"Baby wants to play outside," she explained.

"No," Skouras shook his head, "the baby doesn't want to play outside."

Alice looked at him in utter astonishment. How could he know that?

She shook her head. "It does."

Skouras shook his head again. Alice looked at the baby for back up.

"Baby," she asked, "what you want to do? You want play outside with me?"

The baby simply looked around with her eyes and waved her arms aimlessly.

"Baby, whatchoo want?" She stared, waiting for an answer.

"Baby," she spoke louder. No answer.

"Baby!" She yelled, "Answer!"

Both Milton and Roman were choking back laughter at the exchange.

Staring at the baby, Alice became concerned when its face scrunched up and started to turn red. She wondered what was wrong when a deafening scream suddenly pummeled the room. Alice ran like hell and hide behind the couch.

When the siren-like sound continued, Alice yelled from her hiding spot, "The baby 'asplode!"

"No," Roman called back, "the baby is fine."

Alice allowed her head to peek up from the couch arm, peering over at the shrieking thing in Roman's arms she announced, "It broke!"

"No," Skouras answered evenly, "it's just what babies do."

"Make it stop."

"Oh, if only it were that easy."

Alice looked at the baby, then with hands covering her ears she marched up to it.

"Be quiet, baby."

Bo continued to cry.

"Baby," Alice spoke louder, "be quiet!"

Still the painful sound continued.

"Baby be quiet!" She screamed.

Nothing.

The adults exchanged smiles and muffled laughter, but did nothing to stop the barrage of noise.

Alice put a hand over the baby's mouth. The sound continued, so she took her hand away.

"It noisy!" She yelled.

"Baby, stop noise!

"Baby, listen! Listen, be quiet. No be noisy!"

"Baby, I give you chocolate! Stop noise!"

"Stop noise! No one likes noisy baby!"

"I no play with you if you are noise!"

Milton had a bottle in his hand, but was more than willing to let this play out, for entertainment value alone.

As Bo continued to cry, Alice started to scream, all while looking at her intently.

When her screaming did nothing to deter Bo, Alice stopped.

"I scream louder," she announced loudly, "I win! You stop now. I louder."

Nope. Bo continued to cry. Alice took this as a personal offense.

"You not listen baby! I win! You stop noise!"

The crying continued. Alice put her hands over her ears again.

"You 'noying baby!" She screamed.

"No one likes 'noying noisy baby!"

Hands still over her ears, Alice finally solved the problem by leaving the room.

When Roman Skouras re-joined her she informed him seriously, "My baby better."

He smiled. "Yes, I can see how your baby doll would have advantages over a real baby."

"My baby not 'noying," she agreed.

Skouras smiled and laughed. "No, your baby isn't annoying."

"My baby like play."

He nodded. "Bo's too little to play with yet."

Alice marched back to the room where the baby was now quiet and yelled through the door, "My baby better! It no 'noying! And you stay quiet, baby! I no play with you now!"

Skouras scooped her up into his arms. "How about we get you back home? I think it's nap-time for someone."

"Baby needs nap," she nodded in agreement. "Make it stop 'noying."

Roman smiled at her as he carried her down the hall. "No, I mean you. It's your nap-time."

Alice yawned. "Not tired," she answered.

She was asleep before Skouras got her to the car, and slept the entire car ride back to Symphonique. Skouras' reminder of ice cream, perked her right up.

Skouras placed the container of ice cream on the kitchen counter with two bowls, an ice cream scoop, and two spoons.

"Alice, get the ice cream out and put it in the bowls."

Alice stared at him in shock. He was expecting her to get him food. That wasn't right. That's not how grown ups were supposed to be.

"You get me the ice cweams," she corrected him.

Skouras shook his head. "I want you to try."

Lazy. He seemed perfectly able before.

"Why not get me ice cweams?"

"I want to see if you can do it, Alice."

"Unc Wo-min is wazy?" She asked, genuinely confused.

Skouras laughed loudly. "No," he smiled, "I can get it, but I want to see if you can."

"No big, Unc Wo-min."

"No," he answered, "but you can do it. I want to see you try."

Alice looked at the ice cream. He was trying to make her work for the ice cream. This was not right. She wanted the ice cream.

"Mama gets me the food," she answered, confused by his behavior, and hoping to make him understand that he was the grown up not her.

"Mama isn't here."

Alice's eyes grew wide with fear and sudden understanding, or what she perceived as understanding. She now understood her mother's worries, and was worried herself. How was she supposed to get the ice cream?

"Get ice cweams!" She yelled, bothered that her favorite person was failing in such a simple task.

Skouras shook his head. "You do it."

Angry, Alice climbed up onto the counter from Roman's lap, and sitting on the countertop, she grabbed a spoon, ready to simply eat straight out of the container. As she raised the spoon, Skouras grabbed her hand and stopped the motion of the spoon, then took the spoon out of her hand.

"First noying baby, now noying Wo-min!" She glared at him.

Roman seemed not to hear or care as he simply moved to hold her hands in place. When Alice realized he was keeping her from the ice cream on purpose, the ice cream he'd said she could have, she let out a howl of rage. In seconds, Skouras not bending to her will, Alice was kicking and screaming in a tantrum of righteous rage.

An hour later she was walking down the hall well behind Roman Skouras, a small dish of completely melted ice cream in her hands. Her face was red with rage and exertion, with tears running down her cheeks.

"That's a bad Wo-min!" She cried. "That's a bad Wo-min!"

"Aw," one of the staff cooed, clearly both not having heard the screams,or been informed of Roman Skouras' newest test, "What's the matter, Alice?"

Alice looked up and sobbed, "Unc Wo-min make me get ice cweams!"

Laughter ensued, none of the adults able to see ice cream as a bad thing.

Not enjoying being laughed at, Alice glared, and holding tight to her bowl, she pushed the woman as hard as she could. When she fell over onto the floor, Alice stopped and continued walking.

"Alice," Skouras' voice was stern, "you don't do that."

"I do do that!" She corrected. To prove her point she looked at the woman in the white lab coat, pushing herself up from the floor, and knocked her back down.

"Alice!"

"I do that," she grumbled, walking away from Roman, feeling very weary with the world and its meanness.

"And you get you own ice cweams!" She yelled at Roman and threw her melted bowl of ice cream on the floor.

-Next chapter is all done. Don't forget to review. I think I'll wait till we get 5 reviews before posting the next chapter. Because we have at least that many of you reading. So...where IS everyone? I know you're out there...I just can't see you.


	38. Chapter 38

Allison was asleep.

Milton sat, watching her.

"When are you going to tell her and Bo?"

He turned and looked at Channing.

"Soon, Miss Channing," he answered. "Soon."

"She thinks she has no one!" Channing's voice was sharp and insistent, knowing what that feeling could drive a girl like Allison to do.

When Allison awoke, she was disoriented. She saw the same man she'd seen in her dream, sitting across the room, staring at her. Allison shuddered, then closed her eyes tight trying to make sense of it all, but her memory was foggy at best.

She opened her eyes and was looking down at Bo, still sleeping next to her. Allison's brow wrinkled with confusion. Was it a dream? Was it just a dream? It hadn't felt like it.

"Bo?" She whispered, looking hard at the sleeping face of her friend. Moving as impulsively as she had as a toddler, she pushed the hair up off of Bo's face, and stared hard at her, trying to see if there was a similarity at all. Could it be the same Bo from the dream?

She looked out again at the space they were staying in. At Winter, Tate, and Channing, all suddenly occupied and not looking at her. She felt trapped, like this was all a mistake.

Allison shook her head again as if to clear it, to make the thoughts make sense.

"I'm not Allison?" She looked at her stuffed butterfly, the toy she'd stolen from Symphonique so recently.

"I don't belong here," she muttered, not sure of much, but sure of that. Sure of the only place in her memory and dreams that seemed safe and constant. She clearly didn't belong with these people, she never had. They weren't the ones in her dreams. Clearly she'd been really really happy before, before foster homes and all of this. She needed to go back.

Next to her, Bo muttered, stretched, yawned and opened her eyes. Staring at Allison she asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Allison looked way too serious to have just woken up.

Allison looked startled, her mouth open in shock and eyes wide as though she'd been caught robbing someone, or something.

"Nothing," she stammered. "I'm not thinking about anything," her eyebrows raised by themselves shooting up into her hairline.

"At all," she shook her head. "I'm not even thinking," she promised.

Bo looked sidelong at her as she sat up.

"You're a really bad liar in the morning, you know that?"

Then she grinned at Allison and got up from their bed.

When Allison had gone outside on the upper deck to do a physical and not mental work out with Tate, Bo wandered over to Milton. He saw her coming and seemed to know what was on her mind. He held his arms out to her, and Bo went to him, sitting on his lap.

There, she sighed, and rested her head on Milton's broad shoulder.

"There's something wrong with Allison," she whispered.

Milton nodded.

"She's hurting," she concluded, trying her best with the information she had. "And she's confused."

Milton thought about his answer carefully. "The questions she has about her past, only one person can answer. It's no coincidence that being around you is bringing so many repressed memories to the surface. Her memories come back in bits and pieces. All the games she played where people were killing and being killed? It was a way of subsconciously bringing memories to light. In order to survive living in the orphanage, she needed to forget that she lived anywhere else. That people used to love her, because the absence of that love was too painful. "

"She doesn't trust you because you love me. She thinks you'll turn out like Skouras, even though she sometimes thinks Skouras didn't do anything bad. Because Skouras loved her," she clarified.

Winter nodded. "I understand that. She's in denial right now," he sighed aloud, "she just needs to get all the puzzle pieces put back together."

After lunch, unable to stand it any longer, Bo confronted Allison. She asked the question that was the largest in her mind.

"How can you still care about Roman when he's so awful? He killed your parents."

"Wow kid," Tate whistled, "way to be gentle and soften the blow."

Allison looked at her, and Bo watched her hair float off her, her eyes like sparks.

"It was an accident." The words were automatic. "He was just so scared of losing me," her voice was angry, insistent and defensive, daring Bo to contradict her. "My mom would do the same if Skouras was trying to take me away from her. She'd do anything to protect me, even if it meant killing. That's just what he did. He loved me so much, he could kill for me. He did kill for me. He wanted to get me back."

"They were doing the wrong thing trying to take me away."

"But you said Skouras did things to people, he tried to make them be like you and control their powers, and it killed them."

"Some people died," she answered, with a shrug to indicate that their deaths were hardly consequential. "They got sick and died. That's not Roman's fault."

"I wish I hadn't listened to them," she repeated.

"Your parents?" She asked, drawing from Allison's mind. "You wish you hadn't hidden."

She nodded sadly.

"He wouldn't have had to do what he did, if they weren't trying to take me away. If I hadn't listened to them, everything would be okay. I'd be at home with Uncle Roman right now, instead of here."

"But he shot your mom!"

"He didn't mean to!"

"He shot her two times! You even said he shot her in the face."

"I was wrong," she admitted. "He shot her in the chest. But only because he didn't want her to suffer. She was dying anyway."

Bo stared at her. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"When you were outside working out with Tate, did you fall and hit your head?" She asked.

Allison pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side,disapproving.

"Have a sezuire?"

Now she glared.

"Do you have amnesia?"

Allison sighed in annoyance.

"He shot your dad too!"

"I don't know that," Allison's face was red. "Someone shot him from behind. I don't know who it was."

"Yeah, but who do you think ordered the shot?" Tate couldn't help butting in.

Allison shook her head. "He wouldn't do that. Shooting my mom was an accident." She spoke the words not so much as if they were true but as if she needed them to be true.

"And shooting her again was what?"

"An act of mercy," she looked right at Bo determined to be right.

"You don't know him," she insisted. "He never spent any time with you. Nothing like what he did with me."

She was getting defensive now.

"He took me everywhere he went. Skouras was always there for me. I think it's you all who are confused. You don't know him. You don't know him at all."

"You said yourself that he's dangerous." Tate looked seriously at Allison, wondering when she'd come to her senses.

"I lied," she answered carelessly. "That stuff I said or implied to agent Ferrel in the tunnels was just to get her to leave us alone, and to protect Bo."

She sighed and continued, as if speaking to herself,

"I think Bo was feeding me ideas. I think I've been getting all this bad vibe stuff from all of you about Roman and it's affecting my clear thinking."

Bo and Tate exchanged a glance that said the opposite.

-Okay it's killing me waiting for people to catch up and review. There's SOOOOOOO many of you who haven't reviewed since like, chapter 1. I don't know if you're even reading anymore. By the way, in the last chapter, Alice pushed that aide over with her mind, not her hands. I wasn't sure if I made that clear or not. There's about 30 people I'm waiting for to catch up and review. I hate waiting.

Right now I'm working on a new chapter that I've had to stop working on because it makes me cry so hard. Seriously, I start sobbing because it is just so sad. You know it's bad when you cry at your own story, like pathetic. I'm trying to finish it, but it keeps making me so sad. And on that note, I realize I'm probably going to have to end this story soon because Believe is over, but I really kinda don't want to. I just want the story to keep going on and on.


	39. Chapter 39

Edit- I have been notified within the past day that my work has been heavily plagurized. Upon further inspection, I learned today that it was quite true. Words can't express how betrayed I felt, truly as if I'd been stolen from. It was awful reading the words and the author's own admission that her story was based on my own. In the legal world and even here on Fan Fiction it's unethical and even illegal to do such a thing without the original author's permission.

I was further upset to see that not only was this story heavily based upon my own, but that entire sections had been lifted directly out of my own story and used in this other person's story. I was emailed by staff here, who have been reading this other person's story for a while apparently, and waiting for me to flag it as a plagurism of my own work. And when I checked my inbox here I saw that I had quite a few concerned readers alerting me to the fact that someone was stealing from my story. It's especially hurtful here, in this space where none of us make a profit from our work, and only wish to share our stories. So for someone in that context to steal from someone else is atrocious. Whatever their intended purpose or however benign their reasoning might be "because they were inspired" or whatever... it is in fact plagurism. And I was hurt to read it.

I'm seriously considering taking this story off FFN for good, just to keep this person from continuing to benefit from my story and see what other ideas she can steal from me. Thank you for those of you that spoke out on my behalf, and those who tried to reach out to me and alert me to what has transpired.

I hate to stop the story here, because that would be punishing but I also hate to just be giving this individual just more ideas for their own story. All the while I thought this person was reading my story because they enjoyed it- all the while they were using it for their own purposes, and that really hurts.


	40. Chapter 40

-Considering I have like, 5 chapters I'm waiting to upload...and very little patience, I figured I might as well continue the story. But be assured the next time I find someone stealing from my story, I won't hesitate to report them.-

Allison was already sound asleep by the time Tate came to tuck Bo in. Just to be sure, Bo probbed Allison's mind quickly. Once she was certain Allison was asleep and not feigning sleep, which she'd been doing a lot when she wasn't actually sleeping (also a lot) because she'd begun to say "Being awake is too hard", she looked at Tate.

"I sense there's a question coming." Tate's forehead wrinkled slightly and his tone was one of distaste.

Bo nodded earnestly, her hair falling forward over her shoulders as she did so.

"Why does Allison keep trying to convince us that Skouras is good?"

Tate let out a long, weary sigh, and found he needed to sit down for this one, before answering.

"She's in denial. Maybe she needs to be. Knowing the truth will crush her, because finding out that someone you loved with all your heart is a monster..." he sighed again, unable to finish what he was thinking.

"I guess I'd rather be in denial," she admitted.

He nodded.

"And when she comes face to face with that, with what Skouras really is do you know what will happen?" He'd been thinking on this for a while, and it had been the focus of many discussions with Channing, Leeds and Winter.

Eyes wide with an innocence that was painful, Bo shook her head in answer.

Tate found himself sighing again. "It will break her, Bo. She will be shattered. It's starting to come back. But when she can no longer continue to lie for him, when she's faced with what he really is- she will break Bo. It could actually kill her."

Bo opened her mouth to speak, but Tate held up a hand to stop her.

"And FYI, you can't judge her. You can't say she's crazy. Or at least, if you do, it simply proves that you have no idea the scope of injury she has. Or to put it simply, do not judge what you don't understand. Because when you try to, you simply make yourself look like a fool."

"Huh?"

"Let her have her feelings," he explained, "all of them. Even if they don't make sense to you. She's entitled to every single one, no matter what you may think. Just be glad you aren't her, and don't have to deal with this level of trauma. Murder, abandonment, abuse, neglect, rape, she's been through more than ten adults put together, and she isn't even half grown yet."

Now Bo sighed, feeling the weight of this on her shoulders.

"Not the best way to go to sleep," Tate winced in regret. "Like a horror story for a bedtime story."

Bo smiled up at him. "Don't worry," she assured him, "I'm fine." She grinned wider as proof and got under the covers next to Allison.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," he smiled lovingly at her and kissed her on the forehead. "Good night then, sweet dreams."

She smiled at him again, then turned over on her side and closed her eyes, ready for sleep.

"He took her Simon! That's kidnapping!"

"Il a lui retourne."

"That doesn't matter! He can't just take our daughter and not tell us, or ask us- there's a thought. Never once has he asked permission. He just takes her!"

"He means well, Natalie."

"He can't have her!" She screamed.

Alice was sitting up in bed, clutching her bedsheets, wincing at the strength of the words. She didn't understand what they were so angry about, but it scared her. She wanted the scary yelling to stop, and for someone to hold her and rock her and be nice. Clearly she wasn't going to get that from Mama and Papa now, so she simply decided to seek out the only other person that she knew loved her. She pushed the sheets aside and climbed out of bed. It was a new bed, and she liked it. It was easier to get out of than having to climb out of a crib.

Going out into the main building at night was something Alice never did, but she did it all the time during the day, still she decided she probably shouldn't go alone. Looking at her bed she saw Fie and Key. She smiled, feeling proud of herself for solving the alone problem and wondered which to take. Deciding more protection was better, she grabbed both in one hand.

Then she ran to the door, the feet on her footed pajamas making noises on the bare floor. Hand on the knob, she realized she couldn't walk out of her room or their home without Mama and Papa seeing. Alice bit her lip and thought about this problem.

Mama had insisted she practice their secret game where she made herself disappear, and could reappear anywhere she wanted. They'd been playing hide and seek this way. While Mama couldn't make herself go away, she made sure Alice could. But Alice could only play this game when she was around only Mama and Papa. No one else was allowed to see this trick, not even Dr. Skouras.

Then Alice shut her eyes tight, and made herself reappear outside in the corridor. It was okay because she'd done the hiding at home, and she wasn't using it to show Dr. Skouras, she was only going to go see Unc Wo-min.

The hall was darker than Alice had seen it before, unless there was a storm outside. It didn't matter, Alice knew the way from their house to Unc Wo-min's office. And if he wasn't there, she could find him.

She padded along the dark and empty hall, her blanket trailing behind her and holding tight to her butterfly in the other.

"Cudo, cudo, cudo," she whispered to herself as she walked along in the half dark. Intent on her goal, and the goal helping to keep fear at bay.

Alice paused when she hear voices ahead. She was nearing the main lounge, which was usually empty. As she came nearer, she saw lights, heard a tv, and many voices. Alice crept forward, shyly now, because she knew she'd have to cross this space to get where she wanted to go.

There were a lot of people, a lot of grown ups that she didn't recognize. She saw some of them in groups talking and some sitting on the chairs in front of the tv. Alice bit her lip, and decided to keep walking. If she didn't look at them, maybe they wouldn't see her. She knew better than to talk to strangers.

She was halfway across the massive space, headed towards the inviting darkened hall ahead when a voice jumped out at her.

"Well, look who it is!"

Many of the voices stopped, and Alice could feel eyes on her. She stopped, not liking the feelings she was hearing, and looked in the direction of the voice.

"Skouras' little pet."

"Aw look, she's got a blankey, surprised she doesn't have a pacifier."

A big girl was walking towards her.

"Little Miss Perfect."

More people stepped forward to look at Alice.

"We're not even allowed to be around you," the girl added.

"Not that we'd want to," a boy that looked like an adult spoke. "It's bad enough what we go through because of you."

Holding tight to Fie, Alice backed up until she hit the wall. These people wanted to hurt her. They all wanted to hurt her.

Another big girl with dark hair held up bandaged and bloodied hands as she announced loudly, "This is cuz of you. This is what I got today because of you. Because I'm not you."

Alice stared wide eyed and confused. She didn't hurt this person.

A boy's voice called out, "How many of you have been told to "Be like Alice?" Or, "Alice can do it."

Hands raised.

"Or "She's just two, surely this won't be difficult for you".

A chorus of agreement went up.

A voice laughed and dripped with disdain. "I heard she couldn't even get a bowl of ice cream!"

More laughter. "Yeah, we all heard about that. Wah, wah, I don't want ice cream!"

"Her precious Uncle Roman!"

"What a tool."

They moved towards her, their feelings of hate increasing, accusations flying hard and fast.

"How come he never does anything to you?"

"I don't see you in the lab getting shocked."

"Just wait till you get that Degrade, then he'll stop caring about you."

Alice wanted to run, but was so scared she couldn't move.

"What's going on over here?" Alice recognized the tone as safety, and it was.

"Oh," one of the mean people cooed, "we were just saying hi to the mascot."

Alice saw the heels and tan skirt of one of the staff.  
"Alice! What are you doing out here? You know you're not supposed to be out in the evenings."

As the crowd began to back away, Alice took her chance. She ran in her pajamaed feet across the rest of the space, intent on reaching the hall.

"Yeah," a voice at her back cried, "Run to Uncle Roman Alice! Go run like a cry-baby!"

Her feet made a slight rubbery slap on the hard floor as she fled. Without a pause, she used her mind powers to shove the door she wanted open, the door both being too heavy and the knob too high for her hands.

"Alice!" Roman looked up in surprise, He looked at her yellow flannel footy pajamas her hair still wet from her bath, and hanging in loose dark ringlets over her shoulders. "What are you doing up at this time of night?"

Alice stood just in front of the door, tears rolling fast, her lower lip wobbling as much as her limbs.

"Want cudos," her voice quavered ready to dissolve into full on torrent of sobs at any moment. Her original need had heightened, but that was all she was able to articulate.

Concern marked every feature of Roman Skouras' face as he held out his arms to Alice.

Alice dropped her two protectors and ran to him.

"Then cuddles my Alice shall have," he answered her his usual reply, but Alice burst into sobs crying loud and hard and unabashedly. As Skouras lifted her to his lap, she buried her face in his chest, quickly covering Skouras in wet tears.

"What's wrong cherie? What happened? You're shaking all over. Who has scared you?"

"Make stop!" She bawled. "Bad!"

"Who's bad? What happened?"

Alice simply pointed a stout finger in the direction of the hall. "Bad!" She emphasized.

"They no like me," Alice sobbed, gasping for breath, her French accent heavier in her emotional distress.

"They," she gasped, her body racked so hard by her sorrowful sobs that it was hard to breathe let alone speak, "bad," she finished.

"Okay," Skouras soothed, holding Alice tight in his arms, rocking her back and forth, his lips to the top of her hot sweaty head. "Okay, don't you fear, your Uncle Roman will make it better. Those bad children won't scare you again." He knew exactly who had to be at fault.

Allison woke shaking with terror. Seeing her surroundings in the dark it was Symphonique all over again. This unfamiliar place, these people who did not love her. She realized that all bad things that had happened to her had happened since she'd been taken from Symphonique. She wanted the pain to stop.

Pushing back the bedsheets she quickly got out of bed. She began running for the door, but realizing that would make noise, she made herself float, and floating to the door, she saw Milton Winter's sleeping form. Without a second thought she grabbed his cell phone.

Once outside she turned the phone on, knowing who she was looking for. Entering into his contacts, Allison hit the first button.

And just like that, suddenly everything snowballed. Everything. All the bad things that had happened to Allison in her life. It all became too much to bear. She needed support. And the only person who loved her, the closest thing she had to family was right on the other side of the phone.

Allison could hardly keep her emotions in check, and she cried as she spoke.

"Uncle Roman?"


	41. Chapter 41

"Mama?"

The word was carried on the cold wind.

"Mama?"

Alice realized she must have fallen asleep during a game of hide and seek, and that she'd chosen to hide up in a tree again. It was so dark she could barely make out the outline of the tree's limbs, all she was sure of was the feeling of bark pushing into her skin. Frightened by the dark, and the unfamiliar freezing cold, Alice knew the best idea was to get out of the tree. So, without bothering to 'hide' herself, she floated down until she heard the crunch of leaves and felt solid ground under her feet. She felt with her hands just to be sure. There was indeed the feeling of tree leaves, and dirt and grass under her probing hands.

"Mama! I no hide! You fin' me!"

She yelled loud, frightened that she could not see her mother, or anything at all in the pitch black night.

"Mama?"

"Mama, come out! I no wan pway. Want home, Mama."

She looked around, straining to see through the dark, taking a few steps, the crunch of the leaves unsettling. There was no sound. No reassuring answer from Mama. No laughter, no voices, no light.

"Mama! Come fin' me Mama!"

No arms encircled her. No voices called to her. Alice considered the idea that she was being punished, perhaps left alone because she'd done something bad.

"I sowy!" She called. "Come fin me! I bes good!"

No answer.

Alice shut her eyes and reached out with her mind.

Nothing.

She could find nor feel neither her father nor her mother. A freezing panic enveloped her, and she began to run desperate and blind in the direction she thought that home must be. She'd only run a short ways when her foot caught underneath a tree root, sending her sprawling to the ground.

"Mama?" Her voice cracked with fear. "Mama," she called her voice cracking with fear and the threat of tears, "it dawk! It dawk! I no like dawk!"

She got up and kept running, arms outstretched waiting for arms to pick her up. She ran into something hard, and fell backward. Scrambling up, thinking she'd run into family she reached out to cling to the nearest leg. Her arms encircled a gnarled tree trunk instead.

"Twee," she whispered, feeling it with her hand. She knew adults had to be around her, she just had to find them. So she kept running going in every direction she could think of, arms outstretched, looking for a leg. Every time in the blind dark she ran smack into a tree trunk she felt of it, hoping it would be a person.

The wind howled, sending a biting cold making the trees scrape and whisper and howl together. When something brushed her arm, Alice screamed.

"Mama!" She used all the force of her lungs, pushing the cry in every direction, desperate to be heard.

"Mama!" A shrill, desperate howl to rival the wind itself.

No soothing voice answered. No light came through the dark. No sound other than leaves rasping and twigs snapping with the sound of animal's claws on bark.

"Papa?" She tried again, sitting now, worn out from her fear.

"Papa, ou est vous? Trouvez-moi!" She bellowed.

The wind rushed cold against her, Alice drew her arms around herself, her shirt and arms sticky and tacky for reasons unknown to her.

"Unc Wo-min?"

An owl called behind her. With a scream Alice ran forward and collided head on with yet another tree. Even though her eyes had adjusted to the dark, there was still no visibility between the heavy tree fall. A moonless night in the deep woods made any person as good as blind.

Panicking at the thought of never seeing Mama, Papa or home again, Alice tried to run desperate to get away from the dark.

A fallen tree trunk sent her sprawling forward with a loud cracking sound. Fear overriding her pain response Alice pushed herself up

Thinking they might not be able to see her, Alice began to jump, her arms stretched up to the sky the same way she asked to be picked up.

"I hewe!" She screamed, but her cry caught in her raw throat, cracking from the intensity of her panic, desperation and terror.

"I hewe! Come fin me! I wight hewe!"

Finally when her frantic screams for help continued to go unanswered, Alice sat on the forest floor and screamed with sobs that reached out like sirens, crying until she choked herself and could hardly breathe.

"I hewe!" She gasped, between sobs, lying her face down in the dirt like a bed, her tears mixing with the blood and dirt easily.

"Why you no come fin me?" It was an agonized moan of pain put to words.

"I hewe. Pease come fin me. " The phrase was a moaned plea, before she gave up entirely knowing she was completely alone and hopelessly lost and sobbed in terror.

Bo woke up sobbing, shaking and covered in sweat.

Milton and Tate were at her side in an instant.

"What's wrong?"

"What is it?"

Bo kept sobbing like a baby with a loud carrying sob, feeling nothing but absolute terror.

At their proddings, finding herself unable to talk, Bo closed her eyes tightly and projected her dream into the air, like a movie, in its entirety.

Tate grabbed her tightly, as if to protect her from this horror, feeling as if he'd been beaten to the ground.

Milton closed his eyes in pain. "That poor, poor child," he shook his head sorrowfully.

"She's covered in blood," Channing kept staring in the direction of the dream images, even though they were no longer.

Finally able to speak, Bo said softly, "That was after Skouras had her parents killed. When they were trying to get Allison away from the program."

"Why did she keep running into things?" Channing's voice quavered.

Tate let out a short laugh. "Yeah, if she hadn't've been screaming and crying it'd be kinda funny. I mean she ran smack into trees that were right in front of her face. Make a hellofa cartoon," he smiled, glad to have some humor in this.

Bo had choked back most of her sobs and was well enough to answer, "The dream was lighter than it was in real life. When she was in the forest it was so dark she couldn't even see the trees."

"Jesus," Tate breathed feeling like the lowest form of life now, for laughing, "every kid's worst nightmare. Hell, I got lost in the grocery store, surrounded by other people in broad daylight and it scared me so bad I nearly wet myself. Holy shit, that kid must have been scared out of her mind."

"Tate!" Channing glared at him.

"Sorry," looking down he said the apology gruffly.

After a long time, Bo jumped up from bed as if struck by an idea and ran to Milton's suitcase. Kneeling on the floor, she opened it, carefully searching through the papers. It hadn't occurred to her to ask permission, and it didn't occur to her now, as she continued rifling, slowing only when she came to a collection of her drawings, drawings she'd made before Allison arrived. Finally, finding what she was after, she waved it in the air, looking back at Milton.

"Remember?" She called.

Milton stood and took a few steps forward to clearly see the drawing Bo held aloft. It was a picture of a little girl with pigtails, holding the hand of a man, the two walking into the sunset.

"Remember when you asked me who they were and I told you I don't know?" Her eyes were alight with excitement.

Slowly Milton nodded, his eyes resting on the little girl and the man.

"Skouras," he whispered.

Bo flashed a wide smile. "And that's Allison!" She pointed to the little girl looking backward, holding the man's hand.

Tate walked over and looked down. "When'd you draw that?" He'd seen most of the stuff she drew. She drew all the time, just like Nina had. His brainy artist, he'd called her.

"Back when I was living with Sara," she answered.

"You knew about Allison back then?"

Finally getting a glimpse at what young Allison had looked like through Bo's projection, Milton had finally placed where he'd seen her before.

"That little girl used to come into your room to play with you Bo, when you were just a tiny baby. Skouras brought her," he added, "he told me that she was his niece."

_"Give It."_

_Winter looked down at the insistent blonde looking up at him. _

_"Do you want something?"_

_"Want It," she answered. "Give It." _

_"Alice," Skouras spoke gently, "When you speak English it's not polite to say just want or give, and you need to use the word I. I know that in the Romance languages it's perfectly acceptable to omit the subject pronoun when the verb is conjugated with the correct pronoun by necessity, but it's not proper to omit pronouns in English. Also in English saying "I want" or "give me" is very impolite. You say I would like and please." _

_Both Alice and Milton looked at him as if he'd grown a second head._

_Alice blinked hard, then shook her head to clear it and looked back up at Milton, holding her arms up for the baby in his. _

_"Give." _

_A look of amusement showed in Winter's eyes, but all he said in response was, _

_"Would you like to hold Bo?"_

_"No," she answered, "not Bo, It." _

_"She calls the baby"it," Skouras explained, "Because Bo can't play with her, or speak, or obey Alice, she thinks of her more as a doll, and can't quite see her as a person."_

_"So I see," he answered, then looked back at Alice. "Her name is Bo."_

_Alice let out a sigh that made her sound decades older. "Gimme aweady." _

_"Say I would like to hold Bo, please," Skouras prompted._

_"No!" Alice's voice rose with rage. "Not Bo! It not Bo! Bo big! We pways. Big Awice pway with Bo. Me wants It." _

Milton now was able to understand the look of joy he'd seen on Skouras' face upon hearing this angry pronouncement from young Alice. It was clear that she'd been aware she and Bo would be together again.

Back in the present Milton saw Bo looking at Tate. She was saying, "I used to have dreams about a girl with curly hair. I pretended she talked to me."

I wouldn't be half surprised if she did," Tate answered. "She was probably using her spookies on you."

"WIthout knowing it, I'm sure," Milton interjected.

Just then Channing faked a cough. "Tell them!"

Milton looked at Channing, then at Tate and shook his head in answer. "Not yet," he said under his breath.

Just then Tate looked around and noticed something was wrong.

"Where's Allison?"

Bo looked up at him and answered with a sigh, "She's gone."

"Aw, Triple-Homicide. Bad idea, kid. Bad idea." Tate shook his head, knowing the kid had made the biggest mistake of her life.


	42. Chapter 42

Note- This chapter takes place around the same time or during the episode Revelation. Quite and apt title for what's about to happen next, too.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?"

The chill morning air clung to the fog that seemed to cling to everything else. Allison was standing on the dock, her back to Tate. She turned when he spoke, answering,

"What're you doing out here?"

He saw she'd been crying, and debated whether or not to mention it in any way. Instead he decided on,

"You freaked us out. We thought you left." Then lest he sound too concerned he added quickly and with a tone of anger, "You're not supposed to be out here alone, you could get kidnapped or something."

"Yeah," she answered rolling her eyes, "like living in a boat is so much safer. We could get maraudered."

"What?"

"Breaking into a boat's gotta be pretty easy."

"I thought you said you could take care of yourself," he smiled.

"I can. Speaking of which," she took on a boastful tone, "Some crazy lady came up to me and talked to me."

"See? What'd I tell ya? You'll get kidnapped. All sorts of crazy people live out on the docks."

"And you realize that we live on the dock now?"

Tate looked a little bit sheepish, laughed and nodded saying, "Well, we're not exactly normal, now are we?"

Allison sighed. "Anyway, she was nuts. She said I looked like her mom, then she kissed me," Allison made a face as if this were the worst offense.

Tate looked surprised. "What'd you do?"

"I told her I'd call the cops if she didn't get the hell away from me."

"At first I tried to be polite about it and just backed away and said I don't talk to strangers."

"Crazy people don't care about that."

"Clearly not."

"This is why you need to stay where people can see you."

"I'm 12 I'm old enough to go places on my own. I do go places on my own. I got myself to you guys on-"

"Your own," he finished for her, "yeah I get it."

He took her by the shoulder, but realized that Allison allowed herself to be lead back inside the boat.

Without a word, she walked through the doorway and past Milton, intent on getting back to bed.

"Miss Allison?" Milton's gravely voice rumbled out of the semi-darkness.

"I would like my phone back, if you don't mind."

Allison's eyes widened and defensively she made the phone invisible, even though it was inside her pocket.

"Who says I have your stupid phone?" She answered, disliking him more than ever.

He smiled gently at her. "I know you have my phone, Alice."

She glared at him for calling her that, then answered back, "And I know you're going to hurt Bo."

"I will not hurt her. I have made it my work to see that she isn't hurt, to protect her."

Allison narrowed her eyes. "Why?" She was immediately suspicious. Then she shook her head and added with certainty, "You are going to hurt her."

Then setting her now hazel eyes on his dark brown eyes, she stared intently at him, focused on learning how and when he was planning on hurting Bo.

This staring contest got Tate and Channing's attention. As Channing moved to get a better look, Tate asked her, "What's going on?"

Channing was smiling like a child anticipating a present. "She's trying to read Milton," she whispered, grabbing a chair and moving closer, clearly seeing this as entertainment not to be missed. Tate knew if there'd been popcorn around, she'd have grabbed some for this.

"What's the big deal?"

"No one's ever been able to read Winter," she hissed. "Everyone at Orchestra tried." She was sitting now, and leaning forward in her seat, eyes glued on the two.

"Big deal."

"You still don't know who he is, do you? Or even what he's capable of."

"I don't really care," he answered honestly.

"He's the world's top expert on the human mind, the conscious and unconscious mind, which includes any and all telepathic powers."

"Woo," Tate waved his fingers, clearly not impressed.

He watched then and saw Allison pull her head back, and look around as if completely baffled. Then she stared at Milton again. Her eyes narrowed and and her forehead creased.

"Stop it!" Allison stomped her foot on the ground. The wooden floor cracked in expanding rings.

Winter simply smiled. "You're not used to anyone trying to stop your mental powers," he answered. "You've never been challenged in that way."

Tate watched Allison try again, with much the same result, aside from becoming even angrier. She was furious, and looked the way a kid did when someone larger than themselves was holding a toy just out of reach.

Milton chuckled. "Yes, I remember that about you. You hated it when I didn't give you what you wanted."

"You don't know me," Allison answered, making it clear she had no concious memory of Milton Winter being in her life before this year. She didn't like him implying otherwise. She was furious.

"Stop trying to stop me," she growled.

"It's not polite to read people without their permission."

"If you didn't do anything wrong, or weren't planning on doing something wrong, you wouldn't be trying to stop me."

"Touche," Tate nodded agreeing.

"He has a memory he's not letting me see!" She yelled this to Channing, as if telling on another child.

When Channing held up her hands in a helpless gesture, Allison turned back to Winter. Her face reddened with effort.

"Gimme it!" The scream echoed and blended with another voice. She meant the memory in Milton's head, but she stumbled backward, her ears ringing with the sound of another voice.

_Gimme it!_

It was like a song lyric you knew you'd heard before, but couldn't place. A hand to her forehead, defeated, Allison backed away from Milton.

"You may be stronger than I am, Miss Allison, but I have lived longer. I still know more about many different things than you do."

The second voice still echoing in her head, Allison continued to walk backward towards the bed, making no sign of hearing him.

"My phone, Allison."

Sitting down on the bed when she ran up against it, Allison retrieved the item from her pocket and threw it at him.

"I don't trust him," she muttered.

Bo looked up when Allison sat down on the bed. Bo had paid not a bit of attention to the mental stand off of her friend and Milton.

"Where did you go?" She asked.

Allison shrugged, grabbing her butterfly back. "Outside."

Bo looked at her again, into her eyes. When she looked away she spoke again, "You're a bad liar in the mornings."

She knew what Allison wanted the most, and because it coincided with what she wanted, partially at least, she was going to help her friend get it.

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"I like this," Allison smiled.

"What, playing hookie? Escaping Milton and Co?"

She nodded. Both.

"Look, if we're gonna get this stuff, you're gonna need to do your thing. Unless you have a money tree at your disposal."

Allison smiled, closed her eyes and in seconds they were all outside a good block away, wearing the clothes they'd tried on.

"Where are our other clothes?" Bo whispered.

"Check your bag."

Sure enough, all their clothes were there.

"Good," Tate sounded relieved, "because I do not want to wear this get-up any longer than I have to."

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"The man I'm about to introduce likely needs no introduction."

Tate turned to Allison. "Okay, you'd better do your spookie thing and just be invisible, or, you know what? You go and wait outside."

"What?" She stared at Tate, mouth agape. "Are you nuts? Why'd I get all dressed up to go wait outside?"

"You're gonna freak out," he answered. "You know you're going to freak out when you see Skouras, and you're gonna blow our cover."

"I will not!"

"Yeah, you will. You two are on a wire, he'll just somehow look in our direction, see you and bam! our cover is blown."

"Bo will call you when we've found a safe place we can talk to him."

Allison looked at Bo. She nodded and smiled.

"I'm not a baby," she insisted. "I won't blow it."

Bo gave her an apologetic half smile. "Yeah," she answered slowly, "you will."

"How come you're not worried about Bo blowing it?"

"Because Bo barely gives a crap about Skouras. See how that helps us?"

He waved a hand goodbye.

Allison rolled her eyes in frustration.

With a melodramatic sigh of annoyance, Allison turned on her heel and marched away to the lobby. "You suck, you know that?" She called out.

"Part of my job," he reminded her.

Then he and Bo watched as Roman Skouras took the stage and was applauded.

"That seems wrong," he muttered. Bo just watched silently, suddenly filled with terror at the sight of the man who'd had her shot, and tried to kill everyone she loved.

Abruptly she turned on her heel, marching away, planning on finding Allison and saying they were leaving.

William Tate rushed after her, grabbing her by the arm and turning her towards him.

Sensing her fear he tried to calm her down. "It's okay, it's okay," he promised.

Bo looked at him her brown eyes wide. "I'm sorry, I thought I could do it, but I was wrong. I'm too afraid."

"Hey, I'm afraid too. But we gotta stand up to this guy before it's too late. I'd damn sure rather do it on our terms instead o' his."

"Tate," she answered, "I love you too. I forgot to say that before."

"That," he smiled, "feels nice."

REVIEW TIME!

Note: There is a second story that I will be publishing shortly. Also, I'm curious if anyone who originally began following this story is still reading it, aside from the two or three people that regularly review. So that would be...AngelofMusic, Fantasy Emma, HeartofInk, LittleMissFlames, SkylerBleu,UpdikeGirl, , hungergames, thereadingturtle, and witchbaby. Plus a few others, the list got a little long. Any of you still reading? I kinda doubt it, since it's such a long story. :( Anyone I forget?

Also, when you review do me a favor and post your actual age. Trust me on this, it comes into play very shortly. So I need to know, ASAP. You can review logged in, and then anon review with your age if you like. But it has to be your real age. You'll find out why later. It'll be fun. It's a fun little thing.


	43. Chapter 43

"Okay, we're here."

Allison was shocked to hear Tate's voice in her head. But, trusting, she immediately closed her eyes and focused on Tate and Bo. Finding them instantly, she made sure to materialize in a spot that was slightly hidden, so she could come out when she was ready.

William Tate recognized the footsteps of his daughter, but from the look of Skouras, he hadn't.

Tate's eyes were glued on Skouras', so he saw the man's eyes light up with hope, then steel itself for the possibility that who he truly wanted to see might not appear.

And he was right.

His shoulders dropped in disappointment when the light clicking of heels produced Bo Adams. It even took a while for Skouras to even say anything.

"Well, Bo."

He wasn't exactly glad to see her, that much was dead obvious.

You've been searching for her for months, and this is all you can think of to say? Damn.

"Tell him what's on your mind kid. Don't hold back."

Somehow Allison felt better knowing Tate was there. Like for once she didn't have to protect Bo all by herself. Not, she reasoned, that she'd need protecting from Skouras. Just Skouras' people.

"It's really so good to see you." Skouras spoke again when Bo couldn't, but again every word sounded like pure lies. She wasn't who he wanted to see.

And that's when the soft sound of another pair of shoes sounded behind Bo. A slow, click, click, click that let you know a lady was about to enter your space.

And it was as if Skouras' entire being were being lifted from the ground. His sour face contorted to sheer joy, anticipation of a wished for gift. He looked past Bo, straining to see what he wished to see. If it wasn't obvious Bo wasn't the favored child of Orchestra, it was clear now.

Tate watched as Allison stepped into view, her light colored dress, and shoes closely matching Bo's. She of course wore no jacket.

"Alice!" Skouras cried the name as if he were dying of thirst and begging for water.

Allison ran straight to him. THe force knocked SKouras slightly, and brought both to the floor, neither letting go of the other, simply sinking to the floor.

Allison was sobbing, shaking with the weight of her pain.

Skouras closed his eyes, his lips to the crown of her head.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, rocking her back and forth. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Tate shook his head. Shit.

"That's the last thing she needs to hear. Like a battered wife going back to her husband because he says sorry."

He looked at Bo, "His I'm sorrys aren't apologies because he killed her parents, are they?"

Bo puckered her mouth doubtfully and looked sidelong at Tate. "I don't think so."

"Yeah, doesn't take powers to see that."

"But that's all she wants to hear, that's what she's taking it as, whether she knows it or not, all she needs to hear."

Tate nodded. "That's the problem."

Skouras was rubbing Allison's back in circles with one hand, the other running over her waterfall of curls.

"It's okay," his voice was choked. "It's okay, I'm here now," he whispered, "everything's going to be all right."

Tate and Bo just stood and watched, transfixed.

When Skouras had managed to calm Allison's sobs to a low whimper,

"Look at her eyes!" Bo pointed to Allison, eyes wide herself.

He did, and felt a cold shudder through his body. "They're blue!"

"Really blue," Bo corrected.

"Aren't they usually-"

"Yeah," Bo answered, "they're like a mood ring. They've never been blue before. Blue must be her happy color."

Skouras heard this and answered Bo.

"Of course they're blue," he looked into the eyes he was so familiar with. "They've never been anything but." He smiled into Alice's eyes, seeing no one but her.

He had a sudden urge to cuddle and kiss Alice the way he'd used to, but had a sad feeling that such intense displays of affection would now seem 'not cool'.

Tate suddenly felt his body shudder. It felt as if he were being pushed backward,pushed through a wall of water very slowly, almost imperceptibly. He looked at Bo.

"What's happening?"

Bo concentrated on Allison, then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she announced with certainty, "She's slowing down time. She's made a bubble to keep her and Skouras together for as long as possible, while keeping the people outside from finding us for as long as possible."

"You're serious? She's physically ,actually slowing down time?"

Bo looked at his watch. "Check for yourself."

So he did. Sure enough the second hand dial of his watch seemed to be at a standstill as if his watch had run out of batteries.

"I'll be damned."

"I looked for you," Skouras' voice was soft and riddled with anguished pain, "I looked everywhere. I never stopped looking. With every new student that came to Orchestra or Symphonique, I always hoped it would be you. That somehow you'd be able to find your way back. I never stopped looking for you," he shook his head sincerely, his brown eyes meeting Allison's now bright blue ones.

He cradled her, Allison's head buried in his chest, her arms clasped around his neck.

Tate couldn't stop staring. He knew Skouras was telling the absolute truth.

"When we got the technology online, the ability to track telekenetic powers, it was because of you. I wanted to find you. And once I thought we had, I was sure of it." He sighed and shook his head. "But it wasn't you. All this time I'd been trying to tell myself...but it wasn't you."

"I can't tell you how happy I was when I heard you were alive. Of course, the person giving me the news didn't know who you were, but with the description, I knew it could be no one else. The "other girl" with Bo could only have been you. Just like I'd always wanted you two to be. " At that he again ran a hand over her blonde curls, smiling blissfully.

"I'm so proud of you, he continued, "and I'm so sorry for what you've been through."

"Do you have any idea what she's been through?" Tate spoke, hoping to break the spell of false bliss.

"No," he admitted. "I only know that she was raised in a state institution, an orphanage. That's bad enough."

"I was just so glad you were alive. I'd almost given up hope. When Bo didn't bring you to her, or mention you after a while, I admit I thought the worst for a long time."

"Bo would bring her?"

Skouras nodded. "Like a beacon. These girls are connected, Mr. Tate."

"You won't be mistreated any longer," he addressed the curly headed girl beneath his hands, "You can come home."

Allison body slackened like a dropped rag doll, all the tension, all the necessary muscles always ready for action for defense, because no one was going to protect her and she cried in relief.

"No wonder she's so confused about what kind of a man Skouras is," Tate muttered.

Looking at the man now, it was clear that in every fiber of his being he loved Allison with the fierce love of a parent. And he realized then how and why he'd shot the people trying to take her away from him. He'd probably been driven to near madness from the panic of realizing she was being taken away. Tate couldn't blame him now, because he understood. Allison had been right, you can kill for the people you love.

Tate looked at poor confused Allison, who clearly was happy,and would probably be happy to continue to suppress the truth for the rest of her life. All she wanted was to go back to how things were, back to a time when she was completely happy, carefree and loved unconditionally. Who wouldn't give all they had, give up anything to have the happy life of a child? And now here was the man that could at least fulfill part of that promise. She couldn't get the past back, but she was grabbing for any part of it she could get. Tate understood that.

He didn't want to break into what was clearly the only truly happy and safe moment this little girl had had in ten straight years, but he knew it had to be done.

"People kept shoving her away from them, like she was some unloveable leper. No one wanted to adopt her."

Skouras' eyes widened with a disbelief that was painful to see. The pain of a parent watching his beloved child be rejected.

"Impossible."

"Didn't want her."

He stared at his favorite. "Impossible," he whispered, tears in his eyes. He kissed Allison's face, and hugged her to him. "Impossible. You are perfect, perfect. People would fight to have a child like you. They're fools. Absolute heartless, blind, fools. How could anyone not want my sweet Alice?"

Tate nodded.

"She's been raped, Skouras."

Skouras' body straightened rigidly, he pulled away from Allison so that he could look into her face.

"Is this true?" His voice was a mixture of hatred and horror.

"Tell me!" He insisted. "Tell me his name. I will see to it that justice is served, and that he suffers."

Allison and Alice both grinned.

"More than once," Tate answered for her. "She's been raped multiple times as a kid, and less then a month ago was raped by three men"

He watched Skouras' face contort as he considered what three men put together could do to a being that they considered less than human.

"They nearly killed her. I doubt she'll ever be able to have kids now."

"Tate!" Bo was horrified.

He shook his head at her. He knew this was the way to break the spell. Not so much to pull Alice or Allison from Skouras, but to make Skouras show more of himself, without realizing he was doing so.

Skouras was shaking his head sadly seeing nothing but horror.

"Alice," he whispered, cupping her face in his hands, tears running down his cheeks. "If I had known, I would have protected you. I'd never let anyone hurt you, you know that."

Then he looked off into space and announced with cold certainty and Tate also understood and agreed with, "I'll have them killed."

"Too late for that," Tate grinned.

Skouras looked up at him, puzzled.

"Your sweet loving little girl killed them, all of them."

Bo gaped, and stared from Tate to Allison, but could find no words.

"For the latest at least I can speak to that. She set a fire from hundreds of miles away."

"But she didn't let them burn to death," Bo picked up the story. "She was more merciful to them than they'd been to her. She set the fire so they'd know fear. Then she killed them. Then she let the fire burn to destroy where they were."

"The Cramer Orphanage fire," Skouras whispered the words looking ahead as if he were watching it.

"My Alice, you did that?" He was grinning. Tate knew he was thinking of her power.

Allison didn't look at him.

"Don't be upset, I'm proud of you. I do believe that child predators should be killed, all of them. The world would be a much better place. You did the right thing."

"She was safely away with us when that happened. She came to us right afterward-which happened to be the day you had Bo shot."

"It was a trank!" Skouras's voice was tense, then softened as he looked at Allison again. "But I thank you for taking care of her, for all that you have done for her to keep her safe. I do thank you and Milton for that. For taking her in, for seeing in her what all those fools failed to see."

He was absolutely sincere. Again Tate's mind was pulled into bafflement. How could this be the same man that had been chasing after them? That had shot Channing?

Again, he shook his head, his brain unable to cope with the huge inconsistency. "No wonder she's so confused. I don't blame her one bit."

Skouras was again rocking Allison as if she were a baby. With a tone void of disapproval he spoke. "Then it was you at Orchestra, and Symphonique. You destroyed the computers," he smiled with pride, "and you took your toys back."

He nodded, rocking them together as if in a rocking chair. "I left your room just the way it was Alice. Just the same.I wouldn't let anyone change it or anyone else live there." He shook his head, "No, that's just for my Alice. It always was."

Both individuals usually tense and unhappy bodies were slack with the relaxation that peace and joy bring. It was clear Allison wanted nothing more than to stay with Skouras, and he her.

But, Bo interuppted their happy moment, finally.

"We wanna end this."


	44. Chapter 44

-Had to cut out a lot to try to keep this chapter as short as possible- and it's still really long. But I think you'll like a certain part. Don't worry, things that don't make sense will be explained. Actually, everything you read that you're wondering about will be. No worries, kids. ;). And before anyone gets all uppity, alcohol has been and still is used medicinally in measured doses, and is often safer than conventional pain killers. Why does this matter? You'll soon see. Other than that, don't drink kids, it's really not cool.-

Allison stared in open-mouthed shock. Her eyes were glued in horror to the man she'd known all her life as her kind loving Uncle Roman, and it was a crushing expression that felt like knives to see. The person in front of her was not her precious Uncle Roman, but a stranger. Worse yet, a monst'ler.

His loving expression turned to scorn, hatred, and coldness, possibly madness.

When he yelled, Allison jumped backward, aghast. She'd never heard Uncle Roman raise his voice, let alone hear the voice dripping with a blind greed as it did now.

Numb, she stepped forward, clasped Bo's hand and pulled her backward, away from Skouras, now feeling, if not fully accepting, why she wanted to keep Milton Winter away from Bo. There was a cold tingling in her scalp that traveled through her body and made her shudder with a sudden violent shake.

The heartless scornful tone he took with Bo brought tears to her eyes.

As both Bo and Allison watched, frozen in shock, by his hateful words about Milton and Bo's mother, which Allison could feel were lies, Tate lunged at Skouras.

"If you come near my daughter again, I'll kill you."

Finally, unable to take the emotional strain, Allison began to sob, so burdened by the weight of the truth staring her in the face, she collapsed to the ground. Her sobs were like shrieks that shook her tiny frail body. Bo knelt at her side, but her eyes were glued on the dark figure that was Dr. Roman Skouras.

Pained by the sight of his beloved in emotional pain, Skouras ran forward. "Alice!" He held out a hand to her, ready to kneel down on the floor and comfort her, but Bo shot up to standing, moving quickly, yet awkwardly in her dress, holding out a hand in a stop motion, the way that Allison once had.

"No!" She yelled. "You make it worse! You're making it worse!" Tears were streaming down her face, from the pain she felt from Allison.

Allison had a hand to the middle of her chest, pressed firmly against her sternum.

"I think she's having a heart attack!" Bo shouted this observation as she stared at the curled up ball on the floor that was Allison.

When indeed Allison's sobs of emotional pain became screams of genuine pain, Skouras moved forward again.

"It's okay Alice," he shouted over her screams. "I'm here, I'll get you help!"

Allison simply cowered lower at the sound of Skouras' voice, her cries of pain intensifying.

Bo shook her head, her braid flying sideways. "You make it worse!," she screamed. "You make it worse! Get away from her! You're hurting her!"

"I love her!" Skouras' face was contorted in genuine emotional pain. "I won't let her be in pain!"

"Your love hurts!" Bo shrieked the words and blew Skouras backward to the wall.

Tate took the opportunity, and scooped Allison into his arms.

"If you really care about her, you'll listen to Bo," he looked at Skouras, lying dazed, on the floor. "If you really love her, you'll leave her alone. Because you being around her hurts her. It hurts more than the worst people she's known. Because she never expected bad from you. And now, thanks to you, she's drowning in it."

"Alice," he cried as Tate moved away. "I love you!"

"You don't hurt people you love!" Bo shouted back at him. "You don't kill the people they love!"

Allison just kept sobbing and screaming in pain.

Just then they heard shouting. Clearly Allison had stopped wanting to be Alice again, and had allowed time to resume as normal. A group of men was trying to break the door down.

Tate's expression was grim. "Perfect timing."

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"It's Broken Heart Syndrome." The young doctor was holding up the results of Allison's tests.

"Beg your pardon?"

"It's a condition that presents like a heart attack, horrible pain, shortness of breath,but whereas a heart attack only lasts for minutes, Broken Heart can last for hours. It's brought on by extreme emotional trauma."

Allison was still sobbing in pain and clutching her heart.

"So, it's all in her head?"

"No, it's very real. The surge of adrenaline caused by the trauma overwhelms the heart muscle and weakens it."

"Holy crap. So you really can die of a broken heart."

"It's a real thing, but if the stressor is removed the problem will go away. However, if she's re-exposed, every time she is, this will happen again. If it happens too often, the lining of her heart will become too weakened to function."

"Got it."

"How do we make this stop?" His face was contorted in pain, hurting because of the kid's pain. " I mean, give her morphine, or something, man."

"We can't. Drugs don't touch this pain, because the emotional pain that triggered it is greater. The emotional pain has to stop first."

"Great, I really don't see that happening."

"Talking about what's making her hurt is usually a good start," he suggested.

"So, this isn't going to kill her? She doesn't need surgery?"

"You can take her home. I'm sorry we can't do anything for her pain. I've never seen this happen in kids before. Whatever happened must have been really bad."

Tate nodded. "It was."

"Let's just take her home," Bo pulled on his arm. He nodded and looked at the doctor.

"We were never here."

"Got it."

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"Here, drink this."

Bo was sobbing in pain in the front seat, while Allison was curled into a ball in the back seat. He held the flask up to Allison's lips, knowing that if this could dull her pain, Bo would shut up. It killed him to hear her cry in pain. He considered giving her a drink too, but realized it would be better spent on Allison.

She took a sip, then her face scrunched in disgust, the vile liquid held between her cheeks.

"Swallow it," he commanded, "swallow that, or you'll just keep hurting."

Her eyes were shut tight and she shook her head, knowing the drink would be even worse if swallowed.

"Go on," Tate stared at her, showing care but the resolute firmness of a father, as well.

Finally she did so, then began to gag and cough, choking from the burning bitterness.

"Drink more," he held up the flask again. Allison jerked her head away.

"You're not gonna stop hurting unless you do," he answered her silent reply. "I don't care what that ten year old wanna be doctor says, this stuff will make any hurt stop. Why do you think alcohol's so popular?"

Again he held up the flask, telling her he wouldn't take no for an answer.

She took a sip, and again held it in her cheeks.

"Swallow it!" Tate's voice was a solid command. "And don't sip it, it's not a sugar cocktail. You chug this stuff, it's the only way to get something like this down."

"Plug your nose!" Bo cried out, struck with the sudden idea.

Allison did so, then grabbing the small flask from Tate she sucked down its contents. Then, with her nose still plugged she breathed a few breaths through her mouth before releasing her nose.

"It's disgusting!" She screamed.

"Yup. Devil's own brew," Tate's eyes twinkled mischievously.

When Allison stopped gagging and lay down on the back seat, Tate stroked her forehead. "It's gonna be okay," he whispered. "You're gonna be okay, kid."

In minutes, Allison was passed out.

_"Hi, Alice!"_

_At the sudden voice Alice stopped her play._

_"Hi, there sweetie," the voice repeated._

_Alice put down her toy._

_"You not Mama." She picked her toy back up, though it was less a method of defense than the fear this grown up would take her toy for her own._

_The woman smiled._

_"No, I'm not your mom," she answered, and __gathered Alice into her lap, stroking her hair. "You hair is so pretty," she whispered. Alice struggled in the unfamiliar woman's arms, trying to escape this stranger's uninvited grasp._

_"Stwanger!" She yelled._

_The woman simply stared at her, then laughed in surprise._

_"I no wike you," Alice answered, lower lip stuck out in a pout, glaring at being laughed at._

_"Boy does that sound familiar, your mom used to say that a lot too."_

_"Wet go!" She insisted. "Awice no wike you."_

_"Aw, but I love you." The strange woman seemed undetered, and bent down to kiss Alice's cheek._

_Alice wrinkled her nose and squalled as if the kiss had been a red-hot poker, bothered that her insistance of dislike didn't immediately cause the woman to not like her or want to release her._

_"Eew! Cwazy wady!" She yelled, reaching her arms out, trying to pull the carpet to her or pull herself out of the woman's arms to no avail._

_"Mama!" She yelled. "Hewp! Cwazy wady! It steals me! Her naps me!"_

_The nursery door opened and Natalie stepped into her daughter's room._

_"Alice, what's wrong?"_

_"We gots big pwobwems," she answered._

_Natalie laughed at her child's word choice. "What's wrong?"_

_Alice pointed. "Cwazy wady naps me!"_

_"You want to take your nap?"_

_"No! Cwazy wady!"_

_"Crazy lady wants to take a nap? Did your Uncle Roman give you a new doll?" She wondered then added, "That's a horrible name for a doll."_

_"NO!" Alice screamed._

_"It be wight hewe! Wook!"_

_Alice pointed to the woman now standing behind her, who was smiling, on the verge of hysterical laughter._

_Natalie blinked. "Whatever, Alice. Just please play quietly." Then she shut the door._

_Alice howled in terror and ran for the closed door. "No!" She screamed. "No weves me wif it! It cwazy wady! I no want naps!"_

_After she'd bolted out into the living area, the stranger who'd followed after her, announced with concern,_

_"You mean kidnap. You shouldn't know anything about a word like that. Who taught that to you?"_

_Clearly Alice was the only person in the room to see and hear the strange woman._

_"Bad kids nap me," she answered, climbing up into her mother's lap for protection._

_"What?" She asked._

_" They say 'nap me. Then they twow me in gawbage can. They no wike me."_

_"Alice," her mother put down the magazine she'd been reading, as her child took up its space, "who threw you in a garbage can, and who are you talking to?"_

_Alice pointed. "It Mama."_

_"I'm right here," Natalie answered with some annoyance._

_"No, It Mama."_

_"I don't get it." Natalie glanced at her husband. He shrugged. "I don't know if you don't."_

_"It It Mama."_

_At her mother's confused look Alice provided, "Her It Mama."_

_"Now you're just repeating words at me."_

_Alice heaved a heavy sigh of frustration as she watched the strange woman disappear into thin air. She climbed down from her mother's lap, and headed back to her room. _

_"Forgets about it."_

_"We need to work on your second person pronouns, Alice," her father called after her. _

_"Not to mention pluralizing words that don't need it," Natalie added._

_"No we don'ts!" She yelled back, angry that her parents were so focused on her learning English, instead of the fact there was an intruder in their own home. _

_"Alice, good girl! You said don't! Don't sounds better than no, doesn't it?"_

_"No!" She yelled, her yellow curls flying out like tiny flags behind her as she ran into her nursery and slammed the door. _


	45. Chapter 45

"Where have you three been?" Winter took on the tone of disapproving parent, and asked the question as Tate, carrying a sleeping Allison, and Bo walked back into the boat house.

"We paid Skouras a visit." He answered this as he deposited Allison on she and Bo's bed.

"You did what?"

In the ever darkening interior of the boat, Tate turned to face Winter, figuring he'd done nothing wrong, and thus had nothing to apologize for.

"They both had business with him."

"I can't believe you'd put Bo in that kind of danger!"

"She's not the one in danger-anymore. It's that one," he nodded to Allison, who now looked nothing like herself, "he wants. For once we were being chased not to get Bo, but to get the other one with the creepy powers."

"What's wrong with her?" Winter put a hand to Allison's forehead and immediately shuddered as if with cold or fright.

"I'd heard of having a dark cloud over you," Tate answered, " but this is insane."

She was wrapped in darkness, a dark mass like a cacoon. Even her hair had turned nearly black.

Tate stared at her in silence for a while before speaking again. "Her eyes."

"What?"

"Her eyes. When I looked at her, before she passed out, they were black. Almost completely black."

"It could be that alcohol you made her drink." Bo was at Tate's side again, both still clad in their fancy get ups that Allison had stolen for them.

Milton stared at him. "And what in heaven would possess you to give a child alcohol?"

"SHe was in pain, Winter, excruciating pain. What else was I supposed to do? Find a crack dealer on the street?"

"She found out the truth about Skouras ," Bo looked him in the eye, staring hard, trying to see if what Skouras had said was true. "It gave her a heart attack."

"What?" He stared at Tate afraid that Bo wasn't making a joke.

"The doctor said it's called Broken Heart Syndrome. It's not as likely to kill her as a heart attack, unless it keeps happening."

"Long story short," Tate tucked the bedsheets up and around Allison as he spoke, "keep her away from Skouras."

"What doctor?" Milton looked at him with apprehension, as if he feared the answer.

"We took her to this doc we met back in Philly."

"Took her how?"

"She used her powers to get us there-" Bo answered for Tate, before Winter cut her off.

"You let her use her powers like that to travel hundreds of miles away, when she's already emotionally and physically compromised?" Winter's voice seemed to boom and explode through the ship. It brought Channing running with the First Aid kit.

"What's wrong with that?" Tate asked, making quick work of discarding his suit jacket, tie, and unbuttoning his dress shirt, tossing them across the space onto his bed, without moving away.

"She's going to get the degrade!" Channing's voice was sharp. "You can't let them use powers when they're as messed up as she looks.

"There's no telling what both these girls using their powers so much will do," Milton added candidly, allowing for once, for Bo to hear this news as well. "It's dangerous," he continued, his hands and eyes gently probbing Allison's skin, and opening her eyes looking for signs of degrade. "Skouras knew that, and still he kept sending people after her."

Tate turned to Bo, his eyes gentle and full of love, thinking of the pain she'd been through at seeing Skouras again. "Bo," he called to her gently. She was at Allison's side, staring at the dark cloud that covered her. Hearing him call her, she turned back to him.

"Can you go play for a while," he asked, gesturing to the back of the boat, "over there?"

Old enough to realize that Tate wanted to speak to the adults with her out of earshot, Bo nodded solemnly and walked to the other side of the room.

"Winter." Tate lowered his voice and waited until Milton looked at him.

"He doesn't want Bo anymore. It's her he wants."

Milton nodded. "He offered to trade once. He gets Alice and he leaves Bo alone."

Tate nodded. "That's the idea I got. That Bo matters very, very little to him."

Milton nodded. "You're more right than you know, Mister Tate."

Tate sighed heavily and sat down on the girl's bed. "He was a different man when Allison came into the room," he remembered. "He didn't even care when he saw Bo, but when Allison came out of hiding and he saw her?" He shook his head. "He loves her," he said the words as if amazed. "He really loves this kid."

Winter nodded, feeling the pain in Tate's voice.

"How did she find out he changed? What happened?"

"He was going to take her with him, he said so. He was going to take her back with him. That was what she wanted to. I got scared then. I didn't know if it was best to let her go, or insist she stay with us." He gave a sad smile and with a forced, nervous laugh added, "If she wanted to stay with him, there's no way I could stop it."

He looked up at Milton then.

"She stopped time, Winter. Stopped it, so that she and Skouras could stay together."

Winter's eyebrows raised like a marionette.

"Then Bo stepped up and said she wanted Skouras to stop chasing us, and the whole thing changed. I was trying to get him to break his lovey behavior, but it's Bo that did it."

"Then," Tate looked into the space ahead of him as if watching it all over again, "he changed. When Bo said he'd mistreated her, that he didn't take care of her..." his voice trailed off sadly, remembering. "And then she broke down. He scared her."

He looked up at Milton and Channing again. "You know how she pulls Bo away from you, keeps her behind her when you're around a lot of the time?"

When they both nodded, he continued. "That's what she did with Bo. When he got close to her, she pulled Bo away from him, and put her behind herself. Protecting her from Skouras."

"Protecting Bo from Skouras, after seeing him be himself," Winter mused. "Watching his behavior chang probably reminded her of why she protects Bo from me in the first place. The part of her that knows the sad truth about him, when she saw for the first time, with older eyes, how Skouras really feels about his subjects. Why he calls them subjects."

"I saw that. Believe me. Skouras made his "concern" for Bo perfectly clear." He looked down at Allison lying on the bed motionless. "I feel awful for the kid," he added, "to watch the Skouras she remembered and loved morph into the evil man he is now right in front of her eyes, obliterating any shred of denial or excuse she could give him.."

"I'd imagine it was a shock, to put it mildly."

"Like Santa Claus going after your family with a chain saw," Channing suggested.

Tate couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, something like that."

LINE BREAK...

"I hope you all get the degrade and die!"

The scream full of pure hatred jerked everyone out of sleep.

And if that weren't enough, there was a scream with all the power of a sonic boom, echoing and ringing through the boat.

Bo, upon opening her eyes found that her friend was not lying next to her in bed as she usually did, but rather floating in the air. Milton, who was sleeping in the rocking chair next to the girls' bed, simply stood up.

"Well look at that. " Tate had risen from his none too restful sleep and hurried over to see what was wrong. Seeing nothing actually wrong, aside from Allison, still dark haired and floating, he stood staring. "Rise and shine takes on a whole new meaning with that mutant, doesn't it?"

"Mister Tate!" Milton glared at him, obviously objection to his descriptive word.

Channing walked up asking, "Bo, was that you screaming about the degrade?"

"No," she shook her head. "That was Allison."

"She's asleep. She couldn't have screamed like that."

"People yell and talk in their sleep all the time."

"This was different," Tate added. "You all heard it, like someone wide awake in this room screaming."

Standing there, suddenly music was blaring.

_"Why are grown up's faces wrinkled like a lot of prunes? Money, money, money, that's what chases them around like crazy loons."_

Bo wrinkled her nose. "What's that?"

Winter was smiling. "Shirley Temple," he answered.

Then again, as Bo had once done, it was as if the space had turned into a movie theater, a crystal clear picture was projected into the room. (Go to YT and type in Shirley Temple Happy Ditty to see the video)

_"THis is a happy little ditty, I know the words are not too pretty._

_Change keys, it really doesn't matter, it's still a pretty pitter patter._

_I must say the words are not so pretty, you know the words are not so witty anyone can sing this song._

_This is a happy little ditty, you can sing it all day long."_

"Skouras must have had her watching a lot of Shirley Temple," Winter smiled amused.

"Well this is fun," Tate's mouth twisted into a wry smile.

"Oh my god!" Channing cried out, and jumped to the side, pointing.

"Look!" She hissed.

A thin, curly-haired toddler stood staring up at them.

Bo's eyes lit up. "It's Alice!"

Winter held up a hand. "These are all images from her mind. Projections."

Tate shook his head. "That doesn't look like a projection to me."

"Who you?" The little girl scowled at Tate, then looked around, seeing unfamiliarity on all sides.

"Wan go home!" She stamped her foot emphatically. "Wan go home now!"

Milton Winter knelt down on the floor.

"Little girl, what's your name?"

"Why're you asking that?" Tate looked at Milton like he'd lost his marbles. "You know who she is-"

"Dissosciative disorder," Channing hissed. Winter nodded.

"We know what extreme trauma in young childhood can do to the human mind, splintering it into different compartments just to hold the trauma, or traumas. But what happens when the person also has mental powers?"

"Instead of another personality inside the mind," Channing replied, understanding, "it can become another physical person,outside the body."

"Anything is possible with these children," Milton answered, nodding, "anything."

"Sweetheart," he looked at her, "what's your name?"

The little girl looked skeptically at Winter, a look that he'd seen often enough from Allison.

"I Awice," she answered.

Milton smiled at her. "Hello, Alice. And how old are you?"

The girl held up two fingers.

"Two!" Milton feigned surprise, "you're a big girl!"

The joyous smile she gave in response to Winter's praise was a world away from the often sardonic smiles of Allison.

He looked at her seriously and asked, "Do you know who I am? Have you seen me before?"

"I no care," she answered, causing Tate to burst out laughing, "Wan' go home. Now!"

Milton gave her a gentle smile. "Alice, did you come here for any particular reason? Do you have something to tell us? Something about what's wrong with Allison?"

In a precious movement, little Alice clasped her entire hand around Milton's first finger and pulled him along to the door.

"Now go home. Wan' Mama and Papa and Unc Wo-min."

"Non!" Another figure appeared and shoved two year old Alice roughly away from Milton, tackling her to the floor. She was larger, with dark, angry eyes, and a head full of mussy touseled tangled curls.

"Il est dangeruese!""Tu allez loin d' il! Lui n'as pas l'air de securite!" (He's dangerous. You get away from him. He's not safe.)

Milton's eyebrows raised in surprise, but he smiled with excitement.

"And who are you?"

The little girl now in front of his gave him a swift kick to the shin.

A short cry of pain and a limping step away from the girl made it clear that these children were not simply figments of Allison's imagination.

"Ferme ta cul! Sortiez moi!" (Shut up! Get away from me!)

"I might be wrong," Channing whispered, "but didn't she just cuss you out?"

He nodded, his mouth now a grim line. "I believe so," he answered wryly.

"They're like Gremlins," Tate answered. "The suckers are multiplying."

She marched up to Tate then, glowering, looking for all the world as if she'd attack him as well. "Qui-est tu?"

"Tu voudrais dire, 'vous', demoiselle." (Telling her she needs to use more respectful grammar towards an adult)

"Tae-toi," (Shut up)

Channing choked on laughter. "Burn, Milton!" she choked.

She looked around the room, then grabbing the younger Alice roughly by her arm, though she was scarcely any larger, she shoved her roughly to the bed where Allison was still floating.

"This is the protector," Milton announced softly. "This is the part of her that took over in the forest and in her first contact with outsiders, that enabled her to survive. What and who you are seeing now is how Alice transitioned to Allison. She had no other choice. It was either this, or die."

"C'est ne pas ma nom!" The girl screamed, and flames sparked out of her body like falling fireworks, sizzling on the ground.

"Her eyes are brown, hazel," Bo announced, looking closely at the girl. At the sound of Bo's voice, angry little Alice stopped and turned towards her, staring, silent in shock.


	46. Chapter 46

Both little girls suddenly disappeared, and a single gun shot pierced the air. There were screams.

Then just as in Bo's dream projection, they saw a darkened forest before them, and a bloodied and dirty Alice kneeling on the forest floor, sobbing. Then they watched as she closed her eyes tightly.

"She's trying to get home," Bo whispered, all attention on Alice.

There was a flash and suddenly they were in a bedroom.

"My room!" Bo yelled.

Milton smiled, seeing Bo's old crib in front of them, with Alice standing in front of it.

"This not home," she muttered, traces of the younger Alice's lisp gone. In the lighter room, it was easy to see that Alice's clothes were absolutely drenched in blood, with blood still dripping down her, her curls weighted down, hanging long down her back sticky with blood and dirt.

Alice grabbed the crib bars in her hands. "Wakes up!" She yelled. "Where Mama and Papa? I lost! Need go home!"

Milton gasped when he saw Alice's tiny hands leave blood stains.

The intensity of her pleas must have had an effect, as a forceful blast of air pushed through the room, waking Bo. But, as usual, instead of interacting with her, Bo simply began to cry, this time screaming.

Alice sighed, and for the first time tramautized, she barked out with an angry and desperate insistance, "Shut up and hewp me!"

As Bo continued to scream, a light turned on in the hall. Looking towards it, Alice was struck with the need to hide, to escape. Closing her eyes again, she focused once more on home. She'd gotten close this time, but not close enough.

Alice screamed as she hit against something.

Suddenly vicious mocking voices filled the air.

_"No! We don't want you back! With you gone they'll finally leave us alone!"_

_"You can't come back!"_

"Bad kids," she whispered. Then Alice felt a push, and was mentally pushed back, away from Symphonique, by a power stronger than hers.

Now instead of her home, she was right back on the cold dirt and leaves.

Cruel laughter rang in her ears, their cruelty audible to all in the space. _"We'll stay up all night long, for as long as it takes, to block you out. And if you come back walking like a normal person, and we find you, we'll kill you. So just try it Alice. We'd love take away Skouras' pet!"_

More laughter.

More terror filled her as Alice realized the reason that she could not go home, and the fact that she physically could not and would never be able to. These people were keeping her from it. Instead of afraid, now she was angry, furious. Standing alone in the pitch black woods, she shrieked long and hard. The trees whipped back and forth as if thrown by the wind. The shriek was the exact same sort that had yanked them all from their sleep moments before.

In another flash, they saw her crouched in the leaves, shivering, with blue lips and skin.

"She could die!" Tate cried out. "What the hell is wrong with them? Don't they know she's alone in the woods? It's freezing cold in here!"

"That's what they want," Bo answered, still wide-eyed at seeing herself as a baby.

"Those sons-of-bitches," Tate shook his head and began storming towards Alice and the direction the voices had come from.

"Mister Tate," Milton grabbed his arm. "This is in the past," he shook his head slightly. "Your actions, though appreciated, will not help change what has happened."

There was a sudden flash of sunshine, and an undeniable sense of joy as the dark forest was replaced by a lush green field, blue sky and bright sunshine. Skouras stood in the middle of the field wearing kackhis and a polo shirt, and was busy tossing young Alice into the air over and over. Alice was all teeth and bright blue eyes, shrieking and gurgling with joy and amusement.

Skouras was grinning and laughing, looking nothing at all like the man they all knew. "That's my Alice," he smiled, catching her again, and swooping her towards him curving his arms in to cuddle her. "That's my little Alice," he cooed. "My little Alice."

Gun shots sounded again with piercing screams, one now recognizable as being Alice's. The scene changed again, and there was Milton Winter cradeling a shrieking baby Bo in his arms. Fat tears rolled down her red face.

"My god," Winter breathed. "That's what it was."

"What?" Channing looked at him, concerned.

"There was a night that I couldn't calm her. She screamed for hours. I even called Skouras, but he was unreachable. Had to have someone else come in to read her. All they said was that she was terrified, but there was nothing to go off of."

Looking ahead of himself at Allison's projection of Bo's past, he added, "It was the night Roman Skouras murdered Allison's parents."

Everything was black again, silent and cold.

_"If you didn't mean to do it, then I don't have to believe it._

_If you didn't really mean it, then magical thinking gets me by."_

Another song echoed through the space with a feeling that made everyone cold.

As Bo watched, Allison slowly turned in the air, as if simply turning in sleep. She seemed to move slightly, then a dark black raven flew up out of her body and escaped the through the ceiling.

"This is a horror movie," Tate breathed.

The eery music from the song continued to swell until the song's climax which was simply the sound of children screaming. The screams got louder and louder until the image of both a young Allison and Bo appeared, both girls screaming with a forceful will that pushed their hair backward in the wind. Why either girl was screaming was a mystery. And just like that, the image vanished.

_"Never put your love out on the line"_

"Demi Lovato!" Bo cried out, smiling with glee, clasping her hands together and jumping up and down in place, much as she had the first day in the snow when they'd met Allison protecting them from Ferrel.

_"__So I'm putting my defenses up_

_Cuz I don't wanna fall in love_

_If I ever did that_

_I think I'd have a heart attack_

The chorus consistently blasting seemed to echo the strength and pain of Allison's actual heartbreak.

"It's so sad," Bo was frowning.

"The songs are telling how she feels," Channing echoed.

"No one listens to her."

At the new voice in the room, all heads turned. There was a girl about Bo's age with jet black straight hair, spiked leather jacket, black jeans and black Doc Martins, sitting on the top of one of the old steamer trunks that lined the wall.

Her eyes were as black as her hair. She looked a lot like how Allison looked now, in her coma state.

"Who are you?" Tate asked.

The girl ignored him.

"No one ever listens to her," she repeated her original statement. "No one cares about her. No one listens," she repeated. "No one has ever cared about her." The girl shook her head with certainty and her fringe of black hair swung with the motion. "No one loves Allison. No one ever loved her. It's sad."

"What's sad is you saying that." Bo approached her aggressively, clearly taking offense.

"It's the truth," she answered. Then she pointed at Tate. "He said so."

Bo stopped walking forward, remembering the things Tate had said to Skouras about Allison, things he had no way of knowing.

Tate didn't seem bothered. "It's true, isn't it?"

She just stared at him.

"Then don't get upset at me. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Possibly not the best thing to suggest right now," Milton's voice came through the dark in a whisper, then he stepped forward out of the shadows. "Is that why you're here? Are you the part of Allison's self that feels loveable?"

The other girl looked at him as if he'd offended her. "No, idiot," she answered quickly, "I'm the part that's safe."

"Another protector," Channing hissed.

"Ah," Milton nodded his head in comprehension, "I see. Allison has curly hair, you don't. Allison had blond hair, you don't. Allison's hair is long, yours short. Allison is very thin, you have more muscle. Every part of who Allison is and was is what caused these bad things to happen to her?" He asked, knowing the desperate reasoning of a child.

"The reason she wasn't adopted? The reason she couldn't come home to Skouras?"

Bo looked at Channing, standing across from her. At her confused look Channing whispered to her the reason for Milton's statements.

"Allison feels at fault for everything that has happened to her. Because she has the power to do things, she believes it's her own fault when bad things happen to her."

"Allison being Allison is the reason nothing good happened to her." The girl spoke again and just as easily have been addressing Channing as Winter.

"So, if you're nothing like Allison, you are safe?" Milton used his shrink tone, which was really no different than his usual speaking voice. Although if you asked Tate, he'd say it was a lot more condescending than usual.

"Nothing bad's happened to me," she answered.

"Being nice and sweet never got her anywhere," she dark girl finished

"It should have," Winter returned.

"What is your name?" He asked her.

"Who I am, is none of your damn business, Milton."

Then black haired 'tough' Allison vanished.

"These are her feelings, and her memories" Bo spoke up. "Because no one ever asks her how she feels." Suddenly, as if inspired by the girl who'd left them she turned to the adults. "When was the last time any of you asked her about how she felt? Or asked her anything at all? When did you ask Allison about herself?"

They all looked guiltily at one another.

"She's just seen as being an extra mouth to feed, or my protector. But none of you has ever talked to her, or really cared about her."

It was true, at least partially. They'd been so wrapped up in staying clear of Skouras meeting the emotional needs of an extra child wasn't on their radar.

Creepy music began to play again, with new lyrics.

_"The graveyard on Elizabeth, where no one ever goes_

_Kneeling to a gravestone_

_But the gravestone never tells__"_

LINE BREAK HERE ... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Alice? Alice!" A hand shaking her roughly woke Allison, as she heard her name called. Opening her eyes she stared in shock.

"Roman!"

He smiled down at her. "It's been so long," he sighed, "I miss hearing you call me Unc Wo-min."

Allison smiled at him, then remembering the past days' events she shook herself more awake and pulled away from him.

"Alice!" He held up both hands. "Alice, I'm here to help you."

She got off the bed, not disturbing Bo, still sleeping next to her. Backing away from him she answered, "There's nothing you can do to help me," she told him, "Unless you kill yourself."

Skouras winced in pain.

"Alice," he sighed heavily, "I'm sorry," he whispered, careful not to wake the others. "I'm sorry for what I did, can't you believe that? I wasn't thinking. The idea of them taking you away from me-" he shook his head unable to finish the sentence. "I just couldn't stand it. But of course it doesn't excuse what I did. I had no right to kill your parents.

"You admit it!" Her face lit up.

He nodded sadly. "I do, I do. But Alice, that's why I'm here. I came to make it up to you. I took your parents away from you, that's true, and I am sorry for that. I'm sorry for all the wrong and hatred that has befallen you as a result of my personal actions. Because of my selfish want not to lose you."

He stared at her, crestfallen, ashamed, like a five year old caught doing something wrong. Like someone who was beneath her. She felt pity and contempt for him.

"What do you want?"

"To give you back what I took away."

"What?"

Skouras' face brightened. "Here," he motioned to the doorway. "I can take you there, I can show you." He smiled at her then like a child with a present, "I have something that I think you'd like to see."

When Allison looked at him skeptically, he nodded eagerly. "Please, Alice. Let me do this for you! Please. I owe you this much."

When she still hesitated, silent, he added with sincerity. "I swear to you Alice, if it's the last thing I do, I want to make you happy. Give you back some shred of the happiness I stole from you." He paused to emphasize his honesty. "If you don't like it, Alice, you may kill me."

It wasn't certain then whether Allison followed after Skouras because she wanted to see his surprise, or because she wanted to kill him. Still, after an hour long ride in his car, it no longer mattered. They rode in silence, even when Skouras parked the car beside a set of gravestones in an old cemetery.

Without waiting, Allison pushed her car door open and hopped out of the vehicle. She scanned the rows of stones before her.

"What are you looking for, Alice?" Skouras asked, coming up behind her, his voice carried and whipped slightly in the wind.

"A place for you to die," she answered solmenly.

Skouras gave another sad sigh, then placing a hand on Allison's shoulder, h steered her to the left. "THis is what I have to show you," he announced. Walking foreward he led her to a plot of earth where two coffins stood closed. Feeling nothing, Allison peered past them to see the headstones. The names and dates there was blurred, worn away and unreadable.

"Alice," he took her hand in his, and placed it atop the first coffin, his face as eager and shining with antiipatory joy as a child.

"Alice, this is your mother's grave, her coffin."

Allison gasped and tried to back away and draw her hand away, but Skouras' hand held her fast. "You can heal her," he answered her response of horror. "You can heal them both, your father and mother. You have the ability to bring them back to life, just as they were when you were a child. Whole and well, with dozens more years ahead of them."

Allison stared at the steel coffin in shock. Finally she looked at Skouras. "How?" She asked.

He smiled at her. The same smile she'd grown to know. The smile that meant safety, comfort and love.

"Close your eyes and concentrate," he answered, his smile now like bright sunshine.


	47. Chapter 47

Allison opened her eyes with eager joyous anticipation and a wide smile.

"Mom!" She called.

The dark wood that she stared at confused her, and she realized that she was lying down. She scrambled up, belatedly realizing that she was still on the boat with Bo and the adults.

"What the hell?"

She sat up on her knees, not noticing the jet black hair that streamed down her back. Trying to make sense of what she saw, Allison finally put the pieces together. Jumping off the bed, she shed her dress in the darkness, quickly pulling on a t-shirt and jeans instead. Then she bent over and grabbed for her bag, slinging it over her shoulder.

Milton Winter's strong hand on her shoulder stopped her rapid planning. She spun around, shocked not having heard or felt him approach.

"Allison," he asked, "Where are you going?"

She jerked away from him.

"I have to go," she answered.

"Go where?" Bo was awake, lying on her side looking at her.

"I have to help them," she answered her voice seeming choked with longing and hope.

"Help who?"

Tate and Channing had both woken at the sound of Allison's voice and were in various stages of action or watching, comparatively. The idea that Allison wanted to help anyone got their attention immediately. It was out of character for her.

"I can fix it," she answered quickly, stuffing more things into her bag. From the looks of it, it seemed like she was planning on being gone for a long time. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

Bo moved slowly from the bed, walking towards Allison as if she expected physical violence.

"Something's wrong," she announced softly, looking meaningfully into Milton's dark eyes. "Something's really wrong," she repeated.

"Fix who?"

Allison looked up at her, and Bo was startled to see the black pupil of her eye covering almost the entire iris.

Breathlessly she answered, "My parents!" She smiled with unabashed excitement.

Bo stared. "What? I thought your parents were dead."

Allison shook her head. "I can fix them!" She cried joyously, wanting Bo to share in her excitement. "I can heal them! I can make everything go back to the way it was before!"

"You can't bring people back from the dead!" Tate rolled his eyes and stepped forward to Allison. "They'd be zombies."

Allison looked at Tate as if he'd just insulted her.

With a quick motion they saw a flash of metal then Bo screamed, blood spurting from her arm.

Allison dropped her pocket knife back into her bag and jumped to her feet.

"See?" She yelled, grabbed for Bo, who struggled, trying to get away from her. "I can fix her!" She screamed the words almost sounding angry.

Putting a hand to Bo's gaping wound, the blood stopped flowing and the tissue instantly was healed. Once this was done, Allison released her, and Bo immediately ran to Tate.

"I can fix her! I can fix anyone! I could kill people and bring them back to life!"

"Let's not try that, okay?" Tate held out a hand to calm her. "We believe you. I know you can kill people, Triple-Homicide." He used her old nick-name as an endearment.

"Think about it! If I can hurt and kill people so easy-"

"Cuz you're angry," Bo answered.

"I can do the opposite just as easy, even easier! I can heal people's wounds, I can make plants grow out of nothing- I can make people be alive again."

Tate shrugged, amused, but not believeing a word of it. "Well," he joked, "Jesus did it."

"I just haven't tried it before," she continued as if Tate hadn't spoken. "But I know I can! Skouras showed me!"

That got Tate, Channing and Winter's undivided attention immediately.

"Allison," Channing was moving in closer in a defensive stance, "What do you mean?"

"Skouras took me there. He showed me where my parents were buried. He showed me I could heal them, that I have the power to heal them."

"Channing ignored the obvious question "How could Skouras take you anywhere?" and asked instead, They have graves?" Channing's voice was doubtful.

Allison nodded. "I know where they are!" Her voice was high-pitched and insistent. "I know what the coffins look like and everything!"

Tate shuddered. "Jesus Christ, kid."

"Skouras shot them dead," he added, "which has to mean he didn't like them very much. Do you think he'd go to the trouble of a nice little burial for people he wanted dead?"

"You're not listening to me!" She screamed. "I saw it! I saw it! I know I can do it, and you can't stop me!"

Milton had moved away from the group and was speaking urgently to someone on his phone, but Allison didn't notice.

"It was a dream. Allison," Tate answered her. "You were dreaming. You were just asleep!"

"No!"

He nodded. "You were asleep. I gave you some booze before you fell asleep, probably not the best choice on my part," he reflected, "and it can give you weird dreams. Trust me, it wasn't a vision."

"How come when Bo sees stuff it's a vision, and when I see stuff it's a dream? You always listen to Bo! You always believe Bo! You never let me do what I want!"

"If you really believed this, if it was possible, would you be trying so hard to convince us? I think deep down you know what's true. It was a very realistic dream, and I'm sure it was sad to wake up from that dream and be here, without your parents."

"NO!" She screamed, wind gusted through the space and threw every piece of furniture over on its side. "It's real! I saw it! I can do it! I can fix them!"

Tears were running down her cheeks, as she believed that these people simply wouldn't allow her to have her parents back.

Milton Winter walked back to the group with heavy steps and a face that foretold bad news.

"Allison," he spoke softly, "you need to know that there are no graves for your parents. Skouras had the bodies cremated."

The adults knew this was a nicer way of saying what Skouras was likely to have done with the bodies to destroy evidence.

"No!" She screamed again, and shoved Milton roughly away from her.

"You just don't want me to have them back!"

Tate grabbed onto her and held her.

"No!" She fought his hold, but didn't get very far in her weakened state. "Let me go!"

"You haveta stay here. I know you want your parents back, but they're gone hun. You can't get them back."

"You're sick." Bo added, and realized Allison had no clue about her altered appearance.

"You're jealous!" She yelled. "You're jealous cuz I'm stronger than you! You're jealous because you know you're just my replacement! Skouras couldn't have me so he had to settle for you!"

Bo was thrown backward.

"Hey!" She screamed.

Milton held up his hands. "She can't help it," he told her, looking carefully at Allison. "She's losing control over her powers."

"I am not!" She screamed.

"Then why are you still here? Why didn't you immediately teleport yourself to Symphonique?"

Allison didn't reply immediately. "I was just gonna take the car," she answered.

Tate laughed aloud. "Right, kid. You'd be pulled over in a heartbeat. Kinda hard to drive when you can barely see above the steering wheel."

Bo walked up to Allison, gently reaching a hand out to her and stared at her; Allison calmed then, and walked back to bed with Bo- their bed being the only piece of furniture to stay in place and upright after her telekenetic outburst.  
"I wanna go back to bed," Bo explained just before a huge yawn nearly dislocated her jaw.

Allison lay down next to Bo, too hot to use covers, and threw them over Bo instead.

"I haveta get them back," Allison's eyes were already losing the fight to stay open. "It's all my fault," she whispered, "I haveta make him better too," before she fell right back into the coma-like sleep she'd been in for the last eight hours.

Allison was awoken by the feeling of something sitting on her head. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Milton Winter's face close to hers, peering down at her. He smiled at her, his teeth beaming white in the dim light of the boat, his hand, she realized was the thing she felt on her forehead.

"You just go back to sleep, Allison," he smiled "everything's all right."

It was dark again as Allison closed her eyes. She heard soft voices speaking urgently, but couldn't make out or care what they were saying.


	48. Chapter 48

After a feverish sleep, Allison woke up shortly after Bo, but while Bo was full of energy, Allison was still drained, hair and eyes still dark.

Now, she'd moved on from insisting she could bring her parents back from the dead, to being able to fix Roman Skouras.

"I can fix him! He's this way because of me! All of this is because of me! If I hadn't," she stopped, sucking back a sob, but not finishing the thought, "he wouldn't be this way!" She insisted.

"No," Milton's voice suddenly had the sound like a thunderclap. He shook his head, his expression a mixture of pain and sympathy. "No, Roman Skouras is this way because he chooses to be this way. It has nothing to do with you."

She shook her head. "No," she insisted. "He's this way because of me, because I left. It hurt him so much to have me leave, to know that they disliked him so much they'd take me away from him," an involuntary sob escaped, but she choked it back down.

"That crushed him," she finished. "It's my fault! It hurt him so much he broke inside. It made him angry and bitter and distrusting. It ruined him. He became hell bent on finding me or finding a replacement for me-"

"Stop,"held up a hand, choosing not to let her know that Skouras had been greedily trying to find another like her years before her parents tried to get her out of the program, and him bringing her and her family to America wasn't exactly an act of compassion, but a power play. "How do you know he wanted to find a replacement for you?"

"I read it," she answered. "When he said he was trying to find me."

"But when he couldn't find you," Milton pressed on as gently as was possible, "what did he do then?"

Not seeing his point, Allison answered the truth she'd read in Skouras, "Well, he tried to find other kids like me so he could help them."

"BUt he never had the relationship with them that he did with you,"

"No, he lied to them though, so they'd trust him. He'd act like that so they'd trust him more."

"And why was that so important, that they trust him, that they think he cared about them?"

"So they'd come live at Orchestra or Symphonique with him."

"And why did he want that?"

"So he could test their powers and see how strong they were."

"Does that matter to him?"

Allison nodded and it was clear that the truth of all this questioning was painfully oblivious to her.

"Why?"

"If they're stronger he can use them."

"Use them?"

Allison concentrated for a moment, and it was clear that she was probbing Roman's mind even as she stood there, trying to find the answer to why they needed to be strong.

"So he could have them do things for him, and the government."

"Why did Roman bring you to America with your parents?"

She shrugged. "Because I had powers."

"And why would he have wanted you there?"

"He wanted to see my powers."

"Okay, think further ahead, if you were still there when you got older, what would he have you doing? Did he have a plan for you?"

"To help people," she answered. "When I left, he tried even harder to make the others be more like me. He went nuts while I was there trying to make the other kids be more like me."

"And did it hurt those others?"

"Some of them got sick and died."

"The degrade," Milton murmered the word.

"Milton," Channing kept her voice low, "Don't take this away from her. Don't. It's the only thing she has left in this world, knowing that Roman loved her, that's all she has. She needs that, Milton."

"I'm not taking that away from her, Miss Channing," he whispered back.

"You're coming awfully close to it," she answered. "You're proving that he didn't really care about any of the subjects, which will lead her to think he didn't care about her."

"I see," he nodded.

"Bo," he turned unexpectedly to her. "Did Dr. Skouras care about Allison?"

She smiled at the emotion she felt and answered with a happy certainty, "Yes, he loved her."

"Does he still?"

Again she nodded.

"And do you think that Skouras could have, would have, done the same things to Allison that he did to you? Do you think he could have hurt her?"

"No," she answered quickly. "He cared too much about her to let anyone hurt her. But," she added, "he wouldn't have had to. All the powers that Orchestra tried to get us to manifest, to force us to use, Allison could already use at will."

"I believe that's true."

There was a loud bang of breaking glass, the impact vibrating through the floor boards and making them all jump.

"What was that?" Bo asked, looking around the room for something big enough to make that sound. The few glass bottles in the room certainly weren't big enough.

"That was Allison," Tate whispered to her.

Allison's expression was that of a person trying to see something off in the distance, her gaze focusing, then losing focus, then focusing hard again.


	49. Chapter 49

This Chapter is Called Dani Creepers. :) You'll see why soon. Promise!

"Roman killed my parents," she announced, as if this were news to her.

Sadly, realizing that she'd finally come to accept the truth fully, he nodded.

"He was trying to replace me," the words sounded distant, as if Allison were standing in a tunnel. "He kept trying to find people like me, to replace me. If he couldn't have me, he wanted the next best thing. And that's you," she pointed to Bo, "that's why he wanted you in the first place. "And," she added, "that's Dani."

"He didn't care about me that much if he tried to replace me all the time, not caring about those people either. You replace pets," she finished.

"He," she gasped in a breath, and it was clear she was in the midst of a panic attack, "killed," another gasp for air, "my parents."

Allison shuddered visibly, not wanting to hear this truth again. At the movement a black raven pulled out of her body and flew through the deck ceiling, and away.

"Miss Allison," Milton spoke again, his voice soft, and waited until she looked at him before continuing, " this does not mean that he didn't love you, that he doesn't love you."

Emphasizing every word, slowly he said,

"This doesn't mean that you are unloveable."

Her eyes widened in anger, and Bo's able to feel her friend's pain widened with saddness.

"But he's nuts! Only a crazy person can love me!" She screamed her objection, of the truth that broke her heart.

"No," Milton knelt down in front of her, putting a soothing hand to her head," No," he whispered, shaking his head, taking one of Allison's white hands in his own.

"You are a precious little girl, a very bright and loving little girl who has had more hatred and wrong done to her than should ever befall an adult, let alone a little girl. What all those foster parents failed to see in you is their problem, it speaks to their character, not yours."

"Just because Roman Skouras a man who doesn't make the best of choices, chose to love you, doesn't mean that you are a lesser choice for anyone else. People would be blind not to see how wonderful you are, and I think it's a testament to you that someone as messed up as Roman could see that."

"Then why can't anyone else?" It was a plantiff cry for justice, for answers.

Tears were in everyone's eyes, but that sentiment quickly changed as Allison began to cry out in pain and gasp for air.

Channing jumped forward to take action. "What's wrong with her?"

"This is what happened before," Tate answered, feeling panicked, "when she saw Skouras. When she saw who he really was."

"It's that Broken Heart thing," Bo added.

"She's confused," Bo spoke up again. "She's confused about loving him like he's her family, and him being a bad person."

"I don't blame her." Tate looked at Milton when he said this. "Seriously, you should have seen him with her-"

"I have, Mister Tate," he reminded them. "I have no doubt that he genuinely loves her. But," he looked at Allison, "when the person that professes love kills the people that you love then that isn't a healthy kind of love, that isn't true healthy strong love."

"That's crazy-person love," Channing mumbled.

_But that's all that I have._

Bo started crying hearing this. Feeling how unloveable her friend felt.

Allison was staring into space, but seeing nothing, too wrapped up in her own emotional and physical pain.

A hand to her chest, she was forced to sit on the bed in order to continue speaking.

"I have no one! I have no family- I don't even know who my parents are- I didn't even know my own name until I saw Skouras! My first name at least, I have no idea what my real last name is. Or why I'm called Allison and not Alice. I have no one who knows who I am, except for Roman Skouras. The only hope I have about my own life is a man it's horrible for me to love, but that horrible person is the only person I know who's ever loved and ever will love me."

"That's not true!" Milton's voice was harsh. "That is not true, Miss Allison."

"Would you rather we call you Alice?" Tate looked sideways at her.

"It doesn't matter," she answered. "It doesn't matter what you call me, or who I was. I'm nothing. I'm nobody. I have no one. All I have is a house of horrors inside my mind the hell life I lived before coming here. I'm a walking catastrophe. If I weren't such a bad person, all this horrible stuff wouldn't have happened to me."

Again she stared into space eyes wide and unblinking, seeming to see nothing. She stood stock-still for a long time, not a person daring to speak,

The sound of gun shots filled the room.

"Get down!" Tate cried, throwing his body over Bo's, tackling her to the floor.

Allison curled up in a ball and started to scream.

"It's her memory," Channing hissed, pushing herself up and watching as the others did as well. "She's stuck on that memory."

In a flash before them, they saw images of Allison spinning around and slipping past, Allison in different places, at different ages, but always looking sad, or bloodied and bruised. The images, too fast moving to be seen well, suddenly dropped, fell to the floor and vanished.

"I don't want this anymore!" Allison gasped, sobbing. "I don't want this life!"

"It's nothing but bad. Every memory I have is a bad memory- and the only good memories I have are of a man that killed my parents and caused me to live a living hell!"

Suddenly getting up from the floor she walked over to Bo.

"You can make it stop," she told her.

"What?"

Allison shook her head. "I don't want this anymore. You can get rid of it, all of it."

"I don't understand," she answered, "get rid of what?"

"All my bad memories. You can make them go away. Then I can be happy. Then people will like me. I won't have this invisible sign over my head!"

"People not liking you has nothing to do with your personal hell," Tate interjected. "it has to do with people being stupid."

"I can't do that." Bo answered Allison's original demand.

"Yes," Allison grabbed her by the shoulders, slowly enunciating each word, "you- can!"

"You wiped Joshua's memory away. You can do the same thing to me!"

"I don't want to know this anymore!" She screamed, agonized, and grabbed her head as if it might explode. "I don't want to have all these bad memories!"

"Absolutely not!" Milton's usually tender voice was suddenly harsh and threatening as he looked straight at Bo. " You do not even try something like that!"

"Yeah, you let a doctor do it, it's called a labotamy," Tate smirked.

He'd meant it as a joke, but Allison turned, wide eyed and sickeningly eager, to face him. "They can?"

Tate sighed with regret. "No kid, it was a joke, a bad one. I was talking about where they take out a part of your brain, the part that lets you feel sad."

"Dude, do that! I want that!"

"No, you don't. Those people turn into zombies."

"I don't want to live like this!" She screamed again, and the sound came with a boom, a blast of air that sent everyone flying backward, even Allison.

In moments they'd all picked themselves up, either sitting on the floor, as Bo and Channing did or on their feet, which is what Milton and Tate chose. Allison, weakened to the breaking point, simply lay in bed, shaking and sweating with fever and exhaustion.

The sound of footsteps startled Channing from watching Allison. Turning to the sound, Channing gasped and jumped to her feet, immediately assuming a protective stance around Allison and Bo.

"It's all right, Miss Channing," Milton spoke calmly. "I told him to come."

"What?" Channing looked at Winter as if he'd lost his senses.

Milton walked up to her, and taking her physically by the shoulder pulled her aside until they were out of earshot of the children.

"Look at her, Janice," he hissed, glancing at the physically altered image of Allison, "She's dying. He is the only chance she has."


	50. Chapter 50

Bo froze when she saw Skouras in the entryway. When he strode forward, confidently, as if he had every right to be there, Bo jumped up onto the bed, and dove under the covers, firmly securing the sheets over her head, in a vain attempt at self-preservation.

"Out!" Tate barked, pointing to the door.  
"You get the hell out of here!"

"Bo and Alice are in danger," he spoke cooly.

"You bet they are, with you here!"

Moving foward instead of retreating, Skouras took in Allison's still and darkened form on the bed. Visibly shocked, he put a hand to his chest and took a step backward.

"You didn't say it was this bad," he spoke, looking at Milton.

"It started the other day-"

"When she saw you," Tate interupted.

"I believe Dani means to kill Bo and Alice," he finished ignoring Tate entirely.

"What makes you think that?" Milton asked, not pretending to be unaware of the girl Dani at Orchestra.

A shrill shriek echoed through the house boat. Bo clutched the covers tighter over her head, but the adults recognized the sound.

As Roman began to move toward Allison and Bo's bed the sound of running feet was heard, and suddenly the same tiny Alice that had once appeared before them, clad this time in a short white sailor dress, was running as fast as her tiny legs could take her, towards Roman Skouras.

"Unc Wo-min!" She screamed, all energy intent upon her goal.

Roman Skouras stared, slack-jawed in surprise. But before shock, his body moved of its own accord, as it often had in the past. Grinning with joy, he immediately knelt and held his arms wide.

"Alice!"

"Unc Wo-min!" She screamed, still running, her yellow curls bouncing with every step.

"My Alice!"

He was enveloped, seeing nothing but two year old Alice, all questions gone from his mind.

Tiny arms wrapped around his neck in a strangling embrace, as if that weren't enough her legs tried to wrap round his chest as if he were a tree.

"Unc Wo-min!" Blissfully happy, she buried her face into his neck and let out a sweet sigh of utter contentment.

Roman lifted her up under her arms so they were eye to eye. "Alice," he whispered, "what're you doing here?"

"Go home, Unc Wo-min," she answered.

He smiled. "You want to go home?"

Wide eyed and earnest she nodded, her tuft of curls bobbing. "Oui!" She answered.

SKouras' smile widened, and answered his usual, "Yes, Alice."

Showing all her teeth with a smile that could break her face she answered joyously, "Yees!"

Roman kissed her hard on the cheek, and laughed. "That's my girl, Alice!" He laughed again, relieved and relaxed. "That's my good little Alice!"

Little Alice let out a sigh, simply gazing with joy at Roman Skouras, happy to do nothing else for the rest of her life.

"Ready to fly?" He grinned.

Alice threw her head back and crowed kicking her feet with joy.

Up Skouras tossed her. Alice let out a shriek, eyes bright, her eyes never leaving Skouras'.

"Bastard."

The adults looked behind them toward the new voice in the room. They were surprised to see three different versions of Allison, leaning against the wall, watching the interaction and scowling. Angry Alice with the black hair was there, as was a very angry looking three year old with straight brown hair, and approximately a ten year old, hair blonde and with curls.

An Alice that looked close to Allison's age, puckered her lips in disgust and glared as she watched young Alice squeal and laugh as Roman laughed along with her, continuing to toss her into the air.

"Can you believe him?" She scoffed. "Look at him being nice."

"Disgusting," the other two answered as Skouras spun Alice around in a circle, eliciting screams of joy and laughter.

"Jack ass. Can you believe him?"

"I know. Being nice? "He should be dead."

"That's do-able," another answered.

"C'est mon tour! C'est mon tour!" The dirty young Alice charged forward, eager to have her say, when the older darker Alice pulled her back.

"Wait," she answered through gritted teeth. "You'll get your turn."

The others nodded. "You're gonna be the one to bring him to his knees."

"Make him wish he'd never been born."

They nodded. Then they all smiled in unison, the effect was extremely unsettling. Then they say down floating in mid air, crossed their legs and waited.

Seeming to think of something else, they all smiled wider, their eyes flashing with anticipation, as if waiting for a movie to begin.

"Creepy," Tate muttered, side stepping away from them.

Finally, Roman stopped tossing Alice into the air and set her on the floor. She immediately dissappeared. Skouras' shoulders drooped and he let out an audible sigh of regret.

"Unc Wo-min!" A high pitched, but dry voice cried out. When Roman looked up, the Alice they'd seen trapped in the forest appeared, running barefoot towards Skouras.

Visibly upset, Roman knelt down and swept this newer Alice into his arm.

"Alice, what happened?"

"He doesn't know?" Channing scoffed.

"He'd have no way of knowing," Milton reminded her.

Alice was sobbing. "I lost! Bad kids, an Mama no wakes up!"

Roman stared at her blood and mud stained pajamas in horror. Wordlessly he stripped her top off, trying to find the source of her injury.

He gasped when he saw two bullet wounds.

"Do you remember who this Alice is now?" Milton kept his words soft, but it was laced with anger.

Springing into action, Roman lifted her up and barked, "Get me a first aid kit and a place I can bathe her!"

Lifting her into the air, blood pooled on the floor.

A make-shift bathtub was made in the kitchen sink and filled with warm water.

"Gots owies", Alice pointed a finger to the wound on her shoulder and in her side.

"I see," Skouras' voice was grim, but changed as his face brightened, as he picked up sterilizing equipment. "We're gonna fix you right up!" He smiled down at her.

Skouras made rapid work of cleaning the bullet wounds, as Milton looked on next to him.

"I see they just nicked her," he muttered.

SKouras nodded, his mouth a thin line. bandaging the wounds after closing them with surgical tape, he kissed each spot.

"All better," he whispered.

Alice smile sleepily at him.

"Okay, bath time," he announced. Roman stripped Alice to bare skin, and very gently began to wash her body clean of caked dirt and blood.

Everyone had moved to get a better vantage point and watched this intimate and familiar process unfold.

Channing shook her head. "It's like watching a dog walk on its hind legs."

"Look how gentle he is," Bo whispered, having climbed from bed to watch this unusual side of evil Roman Skouras in action.

"He looks normal," Tate agreed, "not like a socio-path at all."

"Creepy, isn't it?"

In minutes, Roman Skouras had three year old Alice in a t-shirt of Bo's, and wrapped up in towels. He carried her over to Milton's rocking chair and sat down, cradeling Alice in his arms.

"All better, sweetheart?" He whispered.

Alice had a thumb stuck in her mouth. She nodded in answer then yawned. "Oui," she mumbled.

"That's good," Skouras whispered, bending down to kiss her on the top of her towel covered head. Then he began to rock the rocking chair gently as he softly sang a French lullaby, lulling Alice to sleep in his arms.

It's sad how few people are left here in the community since Believe stopped airing. :( Oh, and don't forget things that aren't mentioned here are being saved to go in the Bo and Alice story I've already started. And don't worry, the Dani Creepers of this Dani Creepers series should show up more in the next chapter. This is why I can't use much detail, I mean look how much I type as it is.


	51. Chapter 51

I'm trying to keep these as short as possible. It's so frustrating because in my head I can see it and if I could just show it to you the story would already be over right now. I want to get to the end, and the part with Dani, but the stuff in the middle is taking longer than I thought.

Skouras had laid Alice in bed beside Allison. This done, the little immediately disappeared.

"They want to go with him," one of the other Allison's whispered.

"He's a jerk."

The dark tough Allison jerked her chin in the direction of the dirty three year old Alice, the one who'd only wanted to run to Skouras so she could kill him.

"Do your thing," she ordered. "But let it be nice at first, then slam that bastard with everything you've got."

Though seeming to speak nothing but French this little Alice nodded with an eager evil grin.

"Here we go again," Bo announced, looking forward and waiting.

Tate grabbed a chair and sat asking jokingly, "Anyone got popcorn?"

"This isn't funny, Mr. Tate," Skouras gave him the coldest look he'd ever seen, and he was reminded again that the sick bastard really did love Alice. As much as a homicidal person could. Tate laughed aloud realizing only at that moment that Allison and Skouras really did have something in common.

Hearing his thoughts Bo turned to him, disgusted and rolled her eyes. "That's not funny either," she shook her head.

"What are you talking about? It's hilarious."

She kept shaking her head then sighed. "You're hopeless."

Bo squealed an clapped her hands as her nursery came into view. Little Alice was there, and the baby version of herself was sitting up in her crib.

"You wake," Alice grinned. "Wes gon' pway." She nodded as if to cement the fact. Clad in blue overalls a t-shirt and blue keds, Alice paced back and forth in front of the crib, thinking of what to play.

"I know!" She squealed, turning to Bo, who was watching her intently from behind the bars of her crib.

"You bes a wion ou a tigoo!" She yelled the words, excited by her own idea. Then, sticking her hand in her overall pocket, she fished around for a moment, then pulled out a black marker.

Biting her lower lip, she leaned forward grabbing Bo's face through the bars.

"Howd stiw", she ordered. Then, with all the concentration of a three year old, little Alice began to draw on Bo's face.

"We gives you a nose," the marker hit its mark, and made a big black blob on the tiny nose.

"An wiskos", the marker drew lines from Bo's nose all the way out to her ears. Still, when Alice looked at her work she smiled in approval. Putting the marker down on the floor she stepped backward.

"You bes the wion," she repeated, "and yous in you cage," she added, using the crib as a cage. "We be at the zoo, and you bes the wion and I bes the me and I comes to see you at the zoo, wion."

Alice walked around the room casually, hands in her pockets. Then, coming to Bo in her crib she announced, "Now you be wion! Be wion!"

Baby Bo stared at her, fingers in her mouth, trailing marker.

"Go woar!" Alice shouted.

Nothing.  
"Wion goes woar!" She repeated. "Go woar!"

Bo just stared.

"You be a dumb wion," Alice chastised her. "Hewe, wions go wike this," she immitated a lion's roar several times in sucession.

"Now you do!"

Bo simply began to laugh, clapping her hands at Alice's show.

Alice frowned, not liking the lion's behavior.

"You a bad wion," she shook her head dolefully. After a moment, she perked up with a smile and mischief in her eyes.

"You be bad wion!"

Tate chuckled. "You know this is gonna go bad," he laughed.

"Shh!" Bo and Channing shushed him in unison.

"You bweak out of cage!" She grinned. "And you eats peoples!"

Giddy, Alice grabbed onto the bars of Bo's crib and pulled.

"Come outs," she ordered.

A few tugs on the crib, and it began to tip over. Seeing the towering crib falling swiftly towards her, Alice screamed and ran to get out of the way of the crib before it crushed her. The crib crashed to the floor with a force that shook everything in the room.

When it was quiet again, Alice poked her head out from around the side of the crib, as far as she'd managed to get. Seeing Bo calmly crawling and picking her way over the bars, she relaxed.

"Now you out,wion" Alice whispered. "Go eats the peoples!"

Tate laughed riotously. "Man, she was always a twisted kid!" He stopped laughing and looked at Skouras. "And I thought it was you."

Running footsteps were heard in the hall along with Milton Winter's voice.

"Did you hear that? It came from Bo's room!"

Alice's eyes widened as she looked at the door. She knew trouble when it was headed towards her. Carefully she creeped over to Bo. Handing her the uncapped marker she announced, "There now they think you dos it, I no gets in twouble",she nodded. "And no say I was hewe."

Just as the door opened, Alice closed her eyes and vanished.

This being the first time Roman Skouras had seen Alice use that particular power, he stared in shock. "So that's how she did it." He shook his head. "I never knew," he whispered.

"That kid is a bad-ass." Tate was grinning with pride.

The bad Alice looked at the three year old who was projecting this particular memory.  
"Now!" She yelled to her.

Little Alice smiled up from her spot on the floor where she was happily stabbing a Skouras doll in the chest with a needle like a voodoo doll. She grinned like a gremlin and rubbed her hands together in an evil fashion.


	52. Chapter 52

The room was pitch dark and cold again. It was easy to tell where they were now.

The sound of Alice shivering, teeth chattering, and whimpering and crying in pain was the only audible sound.

Skouras leaned forward towards the sound, a pained expression on his face. "No," he whispered, shaking his head as if he could undo what was about to unfold.

"Co-d", Alice whimpered, arms clasped around her chest. In the dim light her blue lips and white face were visible.

When she cried the tears froze on her cheeks. She closed her eyes and what she was thinking was visible. First a blanket showed in the air, but when she tried to make it materialize for her, the voices of the Symphonique teenagers taunting and snearing let her know plainly just why she couldn't have that.

Anguished Roman moaned as if in pain. "Everywhere," he gasped, "we looked everywhere. Combed every inch of that woods for hours, for days! I looked for her for years! And not a trace of her!"

"Are you blaming her?" Channing's voice was sharp.

"No," Skouras shook his head, "of course not."

"You might want to tell her that," she added. "Not to mention apologize for doing this to her."

"Yeah," Tate nodded getting in on this, "You better have a mountain load of apologies for her when she wakes up. If she wakes up."

"Stop it!" Milton hissed the words, holding up a solitary hand, realizing that what was playing out before them had deep significance.

"Co-d" she moaned pitiously, hands now stiff with frostbite. She looked at the hard unfeeling things, then she closed her eyes again.

"Wam, wam, wam," she chanted, her eyes cinching tighter, effort showing on her face.

Suddenly Alice shrieked in pain and was thrown backward onto the hard ground. Raising her hands again, blisters and sores were suddenly visible.

"She made her blood boil," Milton whispered.

After soaking her hands in the nearest lump of snow, Alice tried another tactic for warmth. Finally the warm flickering light shown a smile on her face.

"No, Alice. Make the fire go away."

Already fire was engulfing the nearest trees, while Alice was advancing forwards towards the heat of the fire, happy just to be warm.

When Alice looked towards the sound of the voice, allowing the person to be seen, everyone gasped.

"Nina!" Tate cried at the same moment Bo cried out, "Mom!"

"Make the fire go away, now." Nina's voice was stern.

"I co-d", she answered recognizing the woman as the crazy lady who'd kissed her.

"I know," she answered. "Make it go away now, and I'll take you someplace warm where you can get something to eat."

Food seemed to be the final determining factor. Alice let out a sigh, closed her eyes and the fire vanished.

"Amazing," Roman breathed.

Alice closed her eyes again, knowing of a place she could go, when Nina placed a hand to her shoulder.

"No," her normally gentle voice was stern again, "You can't go back there ever again. It isn't safe."

"Stay with It," Alice argued.

"No," Nina shook her head again. "You can't go there. Remember what I told you about Bo?"

Alice rolled her eyes and sighed with the annoyed aggravation only a child can have. "No," she answered.

Nina smiled. "Yes you do."

Alice wrinkled her nose. "You cwazy."

Then the scene changed. Alice was walking along the highway, when a truck drove past and stopped.

"Tell them your name is Alyssa," Nina's voice whispered, but Nina was nowhere to be seen.

Bright lights and many voices filled the room. Alice was sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital gown, hands to her ears, wincing in pain. Not only that, but Alice now had straight brown hair, and brown eyes.

"She's never been around that many people, with all their thoughts." Roman voiced this as he stared in shock at the stark chance in Alice, now that people were addressing her as Allison.

A Missing Child poster flashed before them, and answered Roman's questions as to why. The reason his billion dollar corporation hadn't found Alice. The girl that they were describing to hospitals and government officials wasn't matching up. The girl pictured on the poster was the opposite of his Alice. The girl was listed as Allison possible age three, and the picture was of a girl with straight brown hair and dark brown eyes. Even Roman had a hard time recognizing her.

Bo clasped onto Milton's hand as he stood next to her. "Why did she change?" She asked, looking up at him.

Milton gave her a sad smile. "My guess would be sadness, trauma" he answered.

"Just like now," Tate echoed.

As they watched there was Alice in various locations and different outfits, she crawled from under beds, wandered halls, even climbed out of windows in order to roam the streets.

"She's looking for-" Winter began before being interuppted by Alice herself.

"Unc Wo-min!" She screamed into the night, sobbing, trying in vain, to find her way home and to people who understood her without needing words.

Roman Skouras held his head in his hands, pained by the weight of his guilt. Little angry Alice grinned at the sight.

A crack of light showed a closed door and tiny toes as Alice sat shivering with terror, arms wrapped around her legs.

Tate closed his eyes. "Oh no," he groaned. Bo simply looked at him, confused.

"Allison?" A male voice called, low. "Where's my little Allison?" The voice crooned. "Don't you want to play with Daddy?"

Alice let a moaning whimper as the footsteps stopped directly in front of her.

Grabbing Bo by her arm, Tate covered her eyes with his hand.

The next flash showed the ceiling and a very close face.

Bo screamed in a mixture of pain and horror, diving behind Tate for protection, alternately putting her hands over her face and groin, not sure what area to protect from the onslaught.

Alice's screams and cries were easy to hear

_Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!_

The words were Alice's but it was clear she wasn't speaking.

Suddenly the man gasped, froze in place, then fell on top of Alice. Alice screamed and rolled, much as she had when Bo's crib attacked her.

The adults stared wide-eyed.

"She killed him," Skouras' voice was barely above a whisper.

"She didn't mean to!" Bo's voice was defensive and certain, offended.

"Looks like he didn't give her much choice," Tate answered.

"I didn't say I disapproved, Mr. Tate," Skouras answered, his voice still full of shock.

An older version of Alice showed up, her head bandaged.

"They burned her hair off," Bo spoke, knowing this for certain.

More images flashed past, simply more grotesque ways that Allison was hurt by the people around her. People who thought she was a demon, a witch, and worst of all weird. Every single time she was beaten or raped was shown as well, a clearly intentional move by the angry Alices and Allisons, whose only intent was making Roman Skouras suffer, laying blame for all evils squarely upon him.

The trio of girls smiled darkly as tears streamed down Roman Skouras' face.


	53. Chapter 53

This has some mistakes in it, but I wanted to get it uploaded before I went to bed. The good news is, after this Dani gets into the story finally.

Tate, Bo, Milton and Channing all watched in silent respect as the smallest Alice/Allison alter ran at Skouras, still seated in the rocking chair next to where he'd placed the Alice he'd shot, and attacked him.

Shrill shuddering screams that echoed and reverberated unaturally were all that was heard. Nothing intelligible, as the little dark haired girl kicked, punched and screamed at Skouras. Amazingly, Skouras sat there and took it.

In moments she was surrounded by a throng of other Alices all screaming, and wanting to get their licks in at the same time, and beat Skouras to a bloody pulp. The adults considered they maybe should stop this, but aside from being entertaining, it could also be viewed that these other versions of Allison weren't really real.

"Aw hell," Tate smiled, "this is better than a movie."

"This is what Allison wants to do," Bo's whispered words were unusually soft noting deep introspection on her part.

"She isn't strong enough," she added sadly, "that's why she can't wake up."

At just that moment Allison moaned in pained, and floating in the air again, she turned over as easily as a floating donut.

Sweat rolled down Allison's face and neck, coating her hair.

Bo continued to watch the one-sided fight, and was silent as the Alice doing most of the fighting knelt down on the floor, finally on her hands and knees as if weighted too far down and began sobbing.

"That's how she feels too," she whispered. "It's confusing. It hurts. She's so angry at him, but she hurts more. Somehow it makes her sad, really really sad. Even her being angry with Skouras hurts her."

Milton nodded with an understanding that neither Allison nor Bo could yet possess.

"Having someone that you loved with all your being turn out to be someone who can create such an act of violence that destroys your world, that shatters your belief in everything," Milton's voice was soft, but even he knew that words couldn't fully encompass the depth of such an emotional betrayal.

"It's my fault." A new, clear voice sounded. Yet another version of Allison, this one looking the same as Allison had just the day before, appeared standing next to the adults.

All the fighting stopped, and the angry Alice's faces fell with the disappointment of truth, as if they'd been caught lying.

"They're sad," she explained, "because they're guilty. They're all guilty. Everything that happened to us is our own fault. It isn't Roman's fault, even though they want it to be. It's easier to blame him for what happened than to blame ourselves."

"It's Allison's fault."

"What is her fault?" Milton asked, knowing somehow that the Allison lying near death was able somehow to hear him. They'd had this conversation before, but there must be a need for Roman to hear this.

"A normal person," the new girl began, "it wouldn't be their fault that so many bad things happen to them. But-"

"It's my fault," Allison's voice croaked, but the words came from the alter's mouth.

"There's stuff wrong with me," she whispered as if the truth shamed her. "I'm not good enough. I'm not nice enough. I'm not like the other kids, that's why they're mean to me," she explained.

"Those kids and those adults who treated you like that oughta be shot," Tate spoke up, angered. "They treated you like that because they're rat-bastards who deserve to have the same shit done to them ten times over. They all need a good ass-kicking."

"Thank you for that endorsement of non-violence, Mister Tate," Milton hissed under his breath.

But Allison kept speaking through the newest alter as if Tate hadn't spoken at all. "And I didn't fight. I could have fought all those people off. I could have hurt them, but I didn't. I didn't stop them. I never stopped them. That's like a super hero not using their powers to save people. It's criminal. For me it's just stupid. "

Bo marched up to the alter doing the talking. "You were too scared!" She interuppted.

The girl shook her head sadly. "Even when they could have killed me. I didn't stop them. I didn't even fight back after a while. I got tired of it. What's the point of fighting after a while you realize it doesn't matter. You're not worth it. If I was people wouldn't be hurting me in the first place. It's only natural to want to get rid of something that is an abberation."

"Say it." Tate stepped forward, towards Skouras. "Say it. Tell her it's your fault. All of it. Everything that happened to her."

Winter shook his head, disagreeing with this course of action. "That's not true, Mr. Tate. It's unfair, even for him."

"No," he shook his head, his eyes flashing with anger. "None of this would have happened to this kid if she was still at that Orchestra place. If he hadn't killed her parents, hadn't-"

Skouras moved forward then, and took Allison's still form in his arms. "No," he shook his head, "he's right."

Looking with a tender pain at his beloved's unresponsive face, he spoke with an earnestness that was unlike him.

"I'm sorry," his voice riddled with pain. "I'm sorry. It is all my fault. All of it. I take the blame. It's not your fault. None of what happened to you is. You are beautiful and unique. People try to destroy the things that they cannot understand, and your beauty shone so bright they were threatened by it. That's not your fault." He kissed her face.

"This is my fault. If you'd stayed at Symphonique none of this would have happened."

"You're just going to make her feel guilty!" Bo yelled.

"Say the truth Skouras," Milton's voice was pained, but cold. "If she'd have stayed, she'd have died long before now. You would have pushed her, and she'd have gotten the degrade and died."

"Gotta say, I think she'd agree that death is better than what she's lived through," Channing muttered the words softly, but everyone heard her clearly as if she'd shouted from a mountain top.

"I take the blame," Skouras repeated. "I killed your mother and father."

A shudder went through Allison's body, but she didn't respond.

"I wasn't thinking. I was only thinking of stopping them, stopping them from taking you away from me. I was selfish and cruel. I'm a murderer. I killed them in cold blood. There's no escaping that. I won't ask for your forgiveness. I wouldn't ask for something I wouldn't be willing to give. I understand that you have to hate me. You should hate me, I'd expect no less. If hating me helps you hurt even a little less, I hope you hate me till the day I die."

"That can be arranged," one of the Alices growled.

"And," he looked at Milton, and this was the only time it was clear he didn't believe what he was saying, "Dr. Winter is right. The reason Bo's mother didn't let you go back to stay with Bo is because she likely knew I'd end up killing you in time."

He sighed then and it was clear he finally realized that this was truth as well.

Stepping away he said softly, "I'll be leaving now."

As he walked away, back to them all, he seemed a shell of a man, dejected, drained of all confidence he'd originally entered the room with.


	54. Chapter 54

With Skouras gone, Channing having checked and locked all doors, Milton turned to the Alice and Allison alters.

"You girls need to go back," he spoke without force. Two of them had already demonstrated powers, he certainly couldn't afford to upset or frighten them.

"No," they answered in unison.

He cast a worried glance over at Allison, then looked back at the small pack before him. "You're costing her precious energy," he explained. "Energy she cannot afford to waste."

The look of defiance they gave him told Milton that these girls would refuse cake and ice cream if he asked them to eat it, just to be contrary, but also to show that they knew who he was, that he was linked to Skouras, and he suspected, thus linked to her family's deaths. He wasn't sure if Allison knew who Nina was, but clearly these alters knew enough not to trust him, just as Allison once had not. And still, admittedly fully didn't, perhaps never would.

Tate looked at them and in a tone that was not to be defied said simply, "Go back to where you came from, right now."

The girls all looked at each other, then gave William Tate a questioning and skeptical look. Then they looked back at one another once more, before vanishing entirely.

Tate smiled and looked at Winter. "Just have to know how to talk to 'em."

Feeling confident and superior he looked with pride across to the bed Allison lay in. Immediately gone was the comfortable feeling of superiority. He pointed a finger towards what he was seeing.

"What the hell is that doing there?" He demanded.

Above the girls' bed floated a blue flashing neon sign.

_Madame Adams Psychic Advisor_

"That's Nina's!" He yelled, as if something had been stolen from him. He looked at Winter as if he could do something about it. "That's Nina's business sign!"

Milton nodded to show his understanding. "I see that," he answered. "But I can't do anything about it. She's projecting the past, Mister Tate."

Now that everyone was staring at him, Tate felt embarrassed for his outburst. Looking closely at the sign, he answered bluntly,

"Well, let's hope she doesn't project much more."

Understanding, Milton and Channing both chuckled.

Shaken by seeing Nina in Allison's projections and now this, Tate overtook Channing as she was heading to the bed to re-check Allison's temperature. He grabbed the instrument from her and headed over to the bed.

_"You'll wake up and not know where you are."_ Her old warning to Bo about floating in her sleep came to mind as he sat on the bed. Holding the thermometer into Allison's ear, he glanced at Bo who was staring at him. He opened his mouth to speak, just as the thermometer beeped.

Glancing at it, he removed it and announced aloud to answer Milton and Channing's question. "One hundred and four."

Bo frowned in concern, pushing the covers off the bed entirely. Then she began to roll up Allison's sleeves and pant legs, before changing her mind and rifling through her clothes for a camisole and shorts. Engrossed in her task, she cried out in surprise when Tate picked her up bodily and carried her away.

"Tate! What are you doing? Put me down!"

He didn't answer, simply continued moving Bo away from Allison.

When he reached Channing at the other end of the room, he finally did as Bo requested. As Channing opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, he answered her question before she could give voice to it.

"Chicken pox," he announced. "No wonder she's so sick." He glanced down at Bo. "Wasn't sure if she'd had it, but she sure isn't gonna want to get it."

Milton walked over to Allison, examining the red spots that had been exposed on her arms and legs, then pushing up her shirt to examine the spots on her stomach.

"Your caution was prudent, Mister Tate," he praised him. "Bo has never had chicken pox."

"So, I'm right." There was a questioning tone to Tate's voice, a need for affirmation.

"Not quite, I'm afraid."

Then what's wrong? You look like something's wrong."

Channing walked past Tate in order to get a better look. She glanced at Milton as he answered Tate.

"This isn't chicken pox, Mister Tate."

"Then what is it?"

Channing sighed heavily and sat down on the bed, exhausted by this truth.

"It's the last stage of the degrade," her voice was hollow.

Bo stepped forward, her forehead wrinkled with concern, brown eyes wide.

"Is Allison gonna die?"

"I don't know, baby," Milton sighed. "I don't know."

"Am I going to catch it?"

"No," Milton smiled gently at her, shaking his head. "You can't catch it, sweetheart."

Hearing that Bo strode purposefully to Allison and lay in bed next to her once more, determined not to be deterred or afraid.

"Wake up," she whispered, smiling. "Skouras is gone."

She squeezed Allison's hand. Allison's body shuddered in a violent twist. She blinked and opened her eyes.

Allison rubbed her eyes then looked at Bo.

"What happened?"

"You don't know?"

Allison shook her head.

Allison shrugged. "I dunno," she answered, and as it meant nothing to her, she pushed herself up to sitting, in order to get out of bed. Bumping her head against the still floating sign, Allison put a hand to her head, then decided this was clearly the universe's way of telling her to stay in bed.

LINE BREAK THINGIE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Roman Skouras hadn't lied. He said he would leave, and he had. And knowing that Channing would only check the exits on the boat and look for his car, convincing her of his absence was easy. He hadn't parked his vehicle in plain sight and he was now in fact sitting in plain sight still inside the boat in the next room. Sitting on the floor of the deck in what used to be a catch-all room for ropes and equipment, he listened to the muffled voices of Channing, Winter, Bo, and Tate.

"We's hiding?"

Roman smiled and looked up into Alice's eyes. "Alice, what are you doing here?"

Alice didn't answer. Still wearing her sailor dress, her hair pulled up into two pig tails, she walked to where SKouras was seated on the floor. Carefully balancing herself she sat down next to him and immediately entwined her arm with his, nestling her head against his upper arm.

"Awice hides too."

Skouras stroked her tiny head and sighed. "It's probably for the best that you not be around me, Alice."

She looked up at him then, bafflment all over her face.

"Why? You no wikes me now?"

With a gentle smile he shook his head. "Alice," he asked, "do you know what I did? Do you know about what happens when you're three? Do you know about that?"

Alice shook her head. "I no care," she sighed. "Wants wuddles with Unc Wo-min."

With a heavy heart, Roman gave her a side hug as a cuddle before admitting, "I've done some very bad things Alice."

She shrugged. "I dwawed on the walls."

"I did worse than that," he admitted.

"Was you naughty? Unc Wo-min was bad?"

"Yes," he nodded slowly, "I was very bad. I did a very bad thing." He didn't want to disrupt whatever piece of innocence this version of Alice held, so he left out "to you".

"It okay," Alice pulled herself up to standing and planted a tender kiss on the cheek of a man whom she believed to be flawless. Skouras felt as if his heart were being squeezed. This must be what guilt feels like. I'd forgotten.

"Alice, I really think you should go back to-"

Allison's sudden shrieks of pain from the main living area of the boat house interuppted him. Without another word or thought, Roman picked up two year old Alice and ran to her current counterpart.

He stopped in the doorway in shock, seeing her sitting on her bed, covering her ears, backing away and screaming.

"No!" He shouted, running towards her. "Dani, stop it!"


	55. Chapter 55

"Stop! Stop it!" Allison screamed, sounding exactly the way Bo had when she had to attack Joshua to protect her friends.

A shock-wave of air knocked objects to the floor, and rocked the boat itself.

She'd been backing away, as if from an invisible assailant, now she just cowered on the floor, holding her head and rocking, moaning in pain. Whatever she'd tried to do, obviously not having the desired effect.

"Mom," she moaned, desperate.

Allison's latest manifestation proved that Skouras still being there was the least of their problems. He'd placed the tiny Alice who'd found him hiding out onto the floor, where she immediately turned to Roman and smiled.

"We goes home, Unc Wo-min."

He smiled and nodded at her. She vanished before his eyes. With a heavy heart he turned his attention to the real Alice.

"She's too weak," he quickly and easily assessed the situation softly as if speaking to himself.

"This is Dani's work."

He looked to Milton. "When did the rash appear?"

"It's come on sometime since you've been here."

"I've only been here an hour," he was shocked. "It's impossible to-"

Roman stopped talking, realizing he was wasting precious time. He stepped up to Allison, knelt, and boldly took her face in his hands.

"Alice, have you had any contact with a girl named Dani? Have you been in telepathic contact with her?"

"No," Allison answered, repulsed, pulling herself away from Skouras.

Up close, what had begun as small raised dots on her skin had spread and cracked into deep red sores.

"That's not true," Bo's voice was low. "She did contact Dani. She tried to warn her that she was in danger that she could get sick."

Skouras looked at Allison. "With your mind?"

"No," Tate rolled his eyes, "with a rotary phone."

Skouras nodded, his face grim. "That explains it."

"I should have known, he muttered. "I should have realized."

"What, Roman?"

"Dani's dying," he replied with candor unlike him. "She blames me for her condition, and wants me to die as well, because of it. But not before she makes me suffer."

"It was only a matter of time before Dani realized that Bo wasn't...before she realized my connection to Alice," he finished, uncharacteristically trying to be polite, realizing he might hurt Bo's feelings if he spoke the truth.

"After all Alice has no records at Orchestra, as Bo does. So after figuring out my relationship with her, Dani'd go after Alice, if she could find her, but she really only had to follow me." He closed his eyes and put a hand to his head, shamed at his lack of retiscence.

"It's my fault. In trying to get to Alice to protect her, instead I've simply helped to lead Dani to her."

"This isn't just the degrade," Skouras finished. "This is Dani mentally attacking Alice. I believe that these projections, the coma, the fever...it's Dani. All of it. It's Dani's way of hurting Alice to get to me."

"But she does have the degrade Roman. There's no denying that."

"Alice can heal herself," he muttered. "I've seen her do it."

"She's been through too much, Roman," Milton's voice was low, but firm. "If you can't help her, she'll die."

When Allison screamed in pain, Skouras looked back to Bo, and with a sigh pulled a syringe from a container in his pocket as he walked towards Bo, holding a hand out to grab her by the arm.

Seeing the needle in Skouras' hand Tate yanked Bo behind him.

"what the hell do you think you're doing?

"They're the same blood-type," Skouras began by way of explanation, but Winter jumped in excitedly, his face glowing with anticipation-

"You have a cure for the degrade!"

"Possible cure," he corrected. "I've had no way to test it until now."

"Bo doesn't have any communicable diseases, and anything that Alice may have contracted can't be passed on with this form of transfusion."

Understanding that this was to save her friend's life, Bo rolled up her sleeve and walked over to Skouras. Tate grabbed her to stop her, to hold her in place, but Bo simply lifted his hand away, and shook her head at him.

"Bo is the only chance Allison has, Tate. And it won't hurt Bo, or Alice."

Bo looked to Skouras and back to Tate. "It's okay," she smiled.

In seconds Skouras had withdrawn a vial of blood from Bo and injected it into one of Allison's veins. After a few minutes, some of the sores disappeared while others shrank in size. Roman and Milton for one moment shared a smile that spoke volumes. Roman sighed audibly, and his smile vanished as he pocketed the container.

"This is only a stop-gap. Something to make her stronger so she can run. But you need to get them both out of here." He looked to Tate as he said this. "Take them away. The further the better, because Dani will be trying to reach them. And if she does, she can kill them both."

"We should go too," Channing announced, grabbing for a bag.

"No," Milton answered. "Dani already has a trace on you, Miss Channing, add that to Allison's and it's a sure fire gaurantee she'll find her, find both of them.

Bo shook her head. "No, she's already on her way. She's driving. She knows exactly where we are."

The adults exchanged a worried glance, but Milton held out car keys to Tate as Channing pushed the girls' backpacks into their hands, seeing as there was nothing else they could do but get the girls as much distance as possible.

"Get in the car and go," Skouras' face was taut, "right now. Don't tell the girls where you're going. Just drive, Mister Tate."

Not trusting Skouras an ounce, but knowing that something had to be really wrong if both Winter and Skouras were saying the same thing, Tate picked up Allison's still-weak body and headed for the door, Bo following after him.

Skouras stood in the boathouse doorway watching the car pull away from the dock before turning back inside. Channing and Winter were simply standing as they had been, listening to the sound of the departing car.

Skouras fished inside his suit pocket as he announced, "I'm going to take care of some unfinished business." Retreiving a small manilla envelope he handed it off to Milton Winter.

"Here, she deserves to know the truth about herself. I owe her at least that much."

Then, not waiting to see the envelope opened, Skouras turned and headed for his vehicle as quickly as possible. This time, Channing followed after him and watched him leave. Only when that was accomplished did she return to the living space of the boat house.

There, she found Milton staring at a handful of papers he taken from the envelope.

"You look as if you expect those papers to bite you," she smiled at him.

Not returning the smile, Milton simply held up the papers, indicating that she should take a look at them herself.

They were government documents, that much was clear right off the bat, as Channing reached for the top most paper.

"A birth certificate," she announced, looking more for the what of the documents than reading them in detail. She reached for the second paper.

"Another birth certificate." Without care she reached for the third document and stopped still.

"An adoption paper?" She looked at Winter, then looked at the first name on the paper.

"This is Allison's," she whispered.

Picking through the papers again she muttered, "One of these birth certificates is forged. It's fake."

"Look at the names on the paper, Miss Channing."

Glancing up at Milton she saw a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Looking back to the paper, she froze, understanding now Milton's expression when she'd first caught him reading the documents.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Milton gave her a rueful smile. "It appears that things are not as they appear at all."

"Why are you smiling?" She demanded. "This is not funny. This is seriously, seriously messed up."

THE END.

That's right. This story is long enough. The rest of this story, going up to the very end of Believe will all be posted in my other story. Which means, yes, to find out what Channing and Milton are reading- you'll have to read the continuation of this story. And, it's not what you think. Nope, it's not that either. :)

Go read "Bo and Alice". Have fun!


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